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IPPINCOTT’S 
SELECT * 
rS* NOVELS 


5SVED 


DNTHLY] 


1'Ier 



Fairy 


Prince 


/MBERl 
! 174 f 


Gertrude Harden 



(< 


25 & 



1895 


PVBLISHED BY 

f J.B. LI PP1NCOTT COMPANY I; 

PHILADELPHIA 


tm 


ENTERED AT PHILADELPHIA POST OFFICE 
AS SECOND CLASS MATTER 


s» ' 


$5.00 PER ANNUM. 




L,I PPINCOTT'S 

Series or Select Novels 

Issued Monthly. In Paper, 50 cents; Cloth, $1.00. 

YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION, TWELVE ISSUES, $5.00. 

MAY BE COMMENCED IN ANY NUMBER. 


THE SEPTEMBER NUMBER CONTAINS 

“A SPOILT GIRL,” 

By FLORENCE WARDEN. 


“ Her latest story, ‘ A Spoilt Girl,’ is her best.” 


PREVIOUS POPULAR ISSUES: 


A Magnificent Young Man. By John Strange 
Winter. 

Too Late Repented. By Mrs. Forrester. 

The Prince of Balkistan, By Allen Upward. 
The Mystery of the Patrician Club. By 
Albert D. Vandam. 

They Call It Love. By Frank Frankfort Moore. 
The Banishment of Jessop Blythe. By 
Joseph Hatton. 

Gallia. By Menie Muriel Dowie. 

In Market Overt. By Janies Payne. 

The Spell of Ursula. By Effie Adelaide 
Rowlands. 

Mr. Jervis. By B. M. Croker. 

Matthew Austin. By W. E. Norris. 

Peter’s Wife, By the “ Duchess.” 

Every Inch a Soldier. By John Strange 
Winter. 

The Light of Other Days. By Mrs. Forrester. 
Found Wanting. By Mrs. Alexander. 

Queen of Love. By S. Baring-Gould. 

A Man of To-Day. By Helen Mathers. 
Burgo’s Romance. By T. W. Speight. 

A Tragic Blunder. By Mrs. H. L. Cameron. 
Paynton Jacks, Gentleman. By Marian 
Bower. 

My Child and I. By Florence Warden. 

A Third Person. By B. M. Croker. 

The Sign of Four. By A. Conan Doyle. 

“ To Let.” By B. M. Croker. 

Aunt Johnnie. By John Strange Winter. 
The Hoyden. By the “ Duchess.” 

Barbara Dering. By Amelie Rives. 

Broken Chords. By Mrs. McClellan. 

Was He the Other? By Jsobel Fitzroy. 

But Men Must Work. B.y Rosa N. Carey. 
A North-Country Comedy.' By M. Betham- 
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One of the Bevans. By Mrs-. Robert Jocelyn. 
A Family Likeness. By B. M. Croker. 


A Sister’s Sin. By Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron. 
Sir Godfrey’s Grand-Daughters. By Rosa 
N. Carey. 

A Big Stake. By Mrs. Robert Jocelyn. 

For His Sake. By Mrs. Alexander. 

A Daughter’s Heart. By Mrs. H. Lovett 
Cameron. 

Lady Patty. By the “ Duchess.” 

Old Dacres’ Darling. By Annie Thomas. 

A Covenant with the Dead. By Clara Lemore. 
Corinthia Marazion. By Cecil Griffith. 

Only Human; or, Justice. By John Strange 
Winter. 

The New Mistress. By George Manville Fenn. 
A Divided Duty. By Ida Lemon. 

Drawn Blank. By Mrs. Robert Jocelyn. 

My Land of Beulah. By Mrs. Leith Adams. 
Interference. By B. M. Croker. 

Just Impediment. By Richard Price. 

Mary St. John. By Rosa N. Carey. 

Quita. By Cecil Dunstan. 

A Little Irish Girl. By the “ Duchess.” 
Two English Girls. By Mabel Hart. 

A Draught of Lethe. By Roy Tellet. 

The Plunger. By Hawley Smart. 

The Other Man’s Wife. By John Strange: 
Winter. 

A Homburg Beauty. By Mrs. Edward Ken- 
nard. 

Jack’s Secret. By Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron., 
Heriot’s Choice. By Rosa N. Carey. 

Two Masters. By B. M. Croker. 
Disenchantment. By F. Mabel Robinson. 
Pearl Powder. By Annie Edwardes. 

The Jewel in the Lotos. By Mary Agnes 
Tincker. 

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A Study in Scarlet. By A. Conan Doyle. 

A Last Love. By Georges Ohnet. 

I The Rajah’s Heir. 


A NEW POSTER SUPPLIED UPON APPLICATION. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE 


BY 

Gertrude Warden 

*> 

AUTHOR OF “THE HAUNTED HOUSE AT KEW,” “ AS A 
BIRD TO THE SNARE,” ETC. 






PHILADELPHIA 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

189s 

— ^ 


Copyright, 1895, 

• BY 

J. B. Lippincott Company. 


Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U.S.A, 


HER FAIRY PRINCE 


CHAPTEE I. 

“Hallo, Armstrong! Thought you were in Aus- 
tralia !” 

“ Hallo, Garth ! Thought you were in gaol !” 

Such were the greetings interchanged in Boulogne 
market-place on a hot August forenoon by two English- 
men who had not met for five years. 

The first speaker, Mr., or Captain Garth, as he styled 
himself, was a man of medium height, inclined to stout- 
ness and of florid complexion, with bloodshot blue eyes, 
plentiful prematurely- white hair, a heavy cavalry mous- 
tache, and a jovial swaggering manner. His clothes 
were carefully brushed and darned, his boots beautifully 
polished, and his chimney-pot hat, set rakishly on one side 
on his white curls, was suspiciously shiny in its surface. 
The Captain’s red face, overhanging eyebrows, and fero- 
cious moustache were wont to frighten children, of whom 
he was specially fond ; but his features were well-cut and 
his manners plausible, and most women considered him 
a very good-looking man for his six-and-fifty years. 

Of his companion’s claims to personal beauty there 
could be no doubt, in spite of the air of drink, dissipa- 
tion, and neglect which hung about him. Wallace Arm- 
strong at six-and-twenty was intended by nature to be 
a splendid specimen of muscular manhood — tall, broad- 
shouldered, vigorous, and sinewy, looming enormous over 

3 


4 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


the small French soldiers who slouched in twos and 
threes across the market-place, and followed where he 
walked by the admiring glances of the stalwart bare- 
footed fish-girls trooping up and down to and from the 
quay. 

But already Wallace Armstrong had done his best to 
injure the heritage of vigour and manly beauty which 
had devolved upon him at birth. Under his eyes, of a 
brilliant bluish-gray colour shaded by thick black lashes, 
late hours and hard drinking had imprinted lines and 
shadows ill-suited to early manhood ; his whole expres- 
sion was sullen and defiant, as though he distrusted and 
despised his fellowmen and was at little trouble to dis- 
guise his feelings towards them. His manner of greet- 
ing his old acquaintance was not only insolent as to 
words, but still more so in the tone he used the while he 
roughly shook Garth’s detaining hand off his coat-sleeve. 

“It’s of no U9e to claim acquaintanceship with me 
now !” Armstrong remarked, harshly. “ I’m broke, stone- 
broke — and, what’s more, if I had any money, I know 
better now than to play cards with you for it 1” 

Captain Garth’s red face grew a shade redder ; but he 
was not sensitive as to snubs, and his tone was alto- 
gether friendly when he spoke again. 

“We’re all broke occasionally,” he observed, sooth- 
ingly ; “ even I do not absolutely wallow in gold at the 
present minute. Still, I’ve a little place up here in the 
High Town where I can put up a friend in difficulties 
until things blow over.” 

“ Oh, I’m not wanted by the police, if that’s what you 
mean 1” the other interrupted, scornfully. “ My early 
indiscretions have been whitewashed by a visit to Aus- 
tralia, which means that, having got into bad company 
in England, I was sent across the sea to get into worse 
company in Australia.” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


5 


“Have you been back long?” Garth inquired, accom- 
modating with difficulty his footsteps to the long strides 
of his companion. 

“ Long enough to spend in Paris the money which was 
to take me back to England ! Look !” And he turned 
his empty pockets inside out for Garth’s edification. 

The elder man looked thoughtful, and walked on by 
his side for some seconds in silence. 

“ Put your uncle ?” he suggested at last “ Surely 
Alexander Wallace’s credit should help his nephew in 
raising the ‘ needful’ ?” 

“ A lot of use when for four years the old skinflint has 
gone about denouncing me as a ne’er-do-weel, and pro- 
claiming the fact that I shall never get another ha’penny 
from him. I’ve written to him from here — it was the 
only thing to be done ; but it won’t be any good. The 
picture I drew in my letter of my sick and starving 
young wife was enough to melt the heart of a stone ! 
But it won’t move Uncle Alec.” 

“ Your wife ?” Garth repeated, in surprise. 

“ Yes. The young, lovely, and pious orphan daughter 
of a clergyman, who fell in love with me on board ship 
and decided to take in hand my reformation. There 
never was such a perfect woman — if, indeed, she’s alive 
still ; but as, when I wrote, she’d had nothing to eat for 
three days — and I can swear she’s had nothing since — 
she may very likely be dead by this time !” 

Captain Garth was neither a good nor a scrupulous 
man, but he had the remnants of a heart about him, and 
his companion’s words shocked and startled him. 

“ Are you mad or drunk, Armstrong ?” he cried. “ Do 
you really mean to tell me your wife is here in Boulogne 
starving ?” 

Armstrong turned and looked at him. Then he thrust 
his hands into his empty pockets and burst out laughing. 

1 * 


6 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ Why, you old idiot,” he exclaimed, “ she’s only my 
wife on paper ! What in the world should I want to 
burden myself with a wife for? Uncle Alec has always 
been soft-hearted about women, probably because he’s 
had very little to do with them and doesn’t know what 
fools and plagues they are ; so the idea came into my 
head to pitch this starving-wife story, and see whether 
that would move him. But I don’t hope much from it.” 

“ It would be rather awkward, though, if he took you 
at your word and asked you to produce her!” 

“ Nothing less likely. He has frequently stated in the 
letters of good advice he sent me at Melbourne that he 
never wished to set eyes on me again ; and Heaven 
knows I am not hungering for a sight of the sanctimo- 
nious old bag of bones ! My precious cousin is now the 
darling of his eye, the industrious apprentice and good 
boy, and all that sort of thing ! He has been taken into 
the bank, and, no doubt, will get the old screw’s money 
when he dies — if he ever will die, which I am beginning 
to doubt ! He never would if I were his heir, for cer- 
tain. Curse my luck !” 

Clearly Armstrong was in a communicative mood as 
he strode along, every now and then savagely kicking 
the stones on the pathway. His last franc had been 
spent on a dose of fiery cognac, which, taken after long 
fasting, had mounted to his brain and brought on a talk- 
ative mood. All the time they conversed the two men 
were mounting the dusty white road which led to the 
High Town, Armstrong insensibly and Garth by design. 

Captain Garth, as has been said before, was not wholly 
ill-natured. Five years before he had had some hand in 
the ruining of Wallace Armstrong, then a high-spirited 
lad of one-and-twenty, and known to be the favourite 
nephew of a wealthy Scotch banker. At that time 
Garth was the secret proprietor of a gambling club, and 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


7 


it was to meet the liabilities contracted there that young 
Armstrong forged his uncle’s name, and was subse- 
quently banished from his native country and his uncle’s 
favour. The gambling club in question had been raided 
and dispersed long ago; but Garth had evaded the law and 
taken up his residence abroad. He was now really sorry 
to note the shabbiness and recklessness of his former 
dupe, and was casting about in his mind as to whether 
he could not assist him with possible profit to himself. 

“ Come up to my diggings I” he said, cheerily. “ My 
little girl will cook us a cutlet and mix a French salad 
as well as any waiter in Paris !” 

“ Your little girl ? I didn’t know you had any family !” 

“Mrs. Garth died in England three years ago,” re- 
turned the Captain. “ She was a very good woman, 
according to her lights ; but — h’m — a little narrow, you 
know ! Country rector’s sister, kept house for him in a 
Sussex village, fell in love with a handsome blue-eyed 
young racing-man she saw in church. I like church — 
it’s an institution that ought to be kept up. And eigh- 
teen years ago, Armstrong, — though I say it that 
shouldn’t — there wasn’t a better-looking fellow at Good- 
wood than Eandolph Garth. I have always been weak 
— I own it — where a pretty woman is concerned ; and 
the late Mrs. Garth was certainly pretty, though she was 
eight-and-twenty when I first met her, and had never 
had an offer. That sly old brother of hers drove would- 
be suitors away — wanted to keep her little pittance — 
just a beggarly life-interest in three hundred a year in 
the family, d’ye see? But she fell in love, as pretty 
women will, quarrelled with her family, ran away to 
London, and met and married me by appointment in an 
old church in the City. As to the little misunderstand- 
ings which followed, no doubt each of us was a little to 
blame ; but Mrs. Garth was a lady, and never made 


8 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


scenes. Our methods of life didn’t suit; so ten years 
ago we parted quite amicably, and my wife settled down 
with our little girl Laline in a cottage in the Lake dis- 
trict, where I visited them occasionally. Three years 
ago Mrs. Garth died very suddenly, and her income died 
with her. So my little girl had to come over and rough 
it in Boulogne with her father.” 

Such was the story of his marriage, detailed airily by 
Captain Garth — a story true in the main, but with many 
touches omitted which would have lent meaning and 
pathos to the whole. The story of a good and tender 
woman’s mistake, of her gradual disillusion and grow- 
ing hopelessness, and of the self-sacrifice by which, at 
last, she forfeited annually one-third of her little income 
to her worthless husband, in order that she might keep 
and educate her child far from the gambling, drinking, 
and unscrupulous set to which the man she had once so 
loved belonged. 

Possibly, had Wallace Armstrong paid much atten- 
tion to Garth’s story, he might have read between the 
lines some of these truths ; but he was at present too 
much occupied with his own affairs to trouble himself 
with the autobiography of a man whom he despised and 
mistrusted. 

The Eue Planche, where Captain Garth’s lodgings were 
situated, was a mean street in the High Town, composed 
of tumble-down ill-built little houses, painted in various 
tints of cream-and-mustard colour, one storey high, and 
furnished with green shutters and little back gardens 
liberally adorned with clothes to dry. 

One worn step only divided Ho. 7, Eue Planche, from 
the street. The front door was open as the two men 
approached, showing a very narrow, brick-paved pas- 
sage, and the linen-hung garden beyond, in which la 
mere Benotte, the Captain’s landlady, w r as engaged in 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


9 


hanging up clothes. The Captain’s rooms comprised a 
little salon on the right, and a little salle-a-manger on the 
left of the entrance, and up-stairs two tiny bedrooms ; 
but before now Mr. Garth had put up a friend on the 
sofa of one of the ground-floor rooms, and he was pre- 
pared to offer a similar privilege to the nephew of Alex- 
ander Wallace. 

The salon was the Captain’s special den. Although the 
window was open, the scent of spirits and stale tobacco 
hung on the air, a few sporting prints adorned the walls, 
and the Captain’s desk was littered by cuttings from 
sporting papers. A card-table stood in the middle of 
the room, and an empty bottle of cognac, half a dozen 
glasses, and a dirty well-thumbed pack of cards clearly 
showed the manner in which the Captain had spent the 
preceding evening. Nothing in this room was removed 
except by Garth’s special permission; but when he 
caught sight of the sardonic expression on his visitor’s 
face, he shut the door somewhat hastily, and inwardly 
regretted that he had not ordered the place to be put 
straight before leaving home that morning. 

“ At your old tricks, I see,” Armstrong observed, an 
unpleasant smile curving his full lips under his heavy 
black moustache. 

“ Oh, just a game with the boys, to charm away home- 
sickness in the evenings. But I must introduce you to 
my little girl. Laline,” he cried, throwing open the 
door of the salle-a-manger , “ I have brought a visitor — 
Mr. Wallace Armstrong!” 

Even Armstrong’s clouded senses understood at once 
the contrast offered by this apartment to the dirty and 
neglected-looking salon. Here the green shutters were 
wide open, letting the sunlight flood the shining deal 
flooring, stained and polished to resemble oak, and the 
cheap suite of dining-room furniture, which had been 


10 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


beautified in the same manner. An earthenware jug, 
filled with poppies, marguerites, and cornflowers, stood 
on the mantelpiece, and a bowl of poppies on the snowy 
well-darned cloth laid upon the table, which article of 
furniture was pushed back to allow full space for the 
gambols of a girl, a cat, and a kitten on the uncarpeted 
floor. 

Laline’s back was turned to the two men as they 
entered. She was kneeling, holding a small black-and- 
white Persian kitten high above her head, and the sun- 
light from the window seemed to concentrate and shim- 
mer in the loose masses of her abundant auburn hair, 
from which a restraining black ribbon had slipped on to 
the floor. Her dress was a long, loose blouse of dark- 
blue linen, yoked at the neck and wrists, and falling 
straight to her ankles, and her slim feet, in blue cash- 
mere stockings, were innocent of shoes, Laline having 
kicked off her little high-heeled slippers in school-girl 
fashion, the better to enjoy her game of “ romps.” 

Immediately in front of her sat the mother-cat, watch- 
ing the struggles of her squeaking kitten with attention, 
but with no apparent alarm. She was a matron of ripe 
experience, and was well assured that her young ones 
would come to no harm in the hands of Laline Garth. 
The girl was laughing as the door opened, a happy laugh 
of childish gaiety, which sounded wonderfully sweet to 
Wallace Armstrong’s ears. 

“ Aren’t you frightened, Hell ? Aren’t you afraid that 
I shall let your silly scratching little ball of fluff fall and 
kill itself? Oh, you unnatural mother!” 

“ Laline,” said the Captain again, “ here is a gentleman 
to see us.” 

She sprang to her feet and faced them, still holding 
the kitten — a lovely overgrown child, to all appearance, 
a bright rose-flush mantling in her sunburnt cheeks right 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


11 


up to the long, brown lashes of her hazel eyes. A very, 
very pretty child, too tall for her short skirts, too long 
in the arm for her short sleeves, from which her slender 
brown wrists were thrust out too far. There existed no 
trace of likeness between the girl and her father. From 
her mother Laline inherited her slender limbs, her bright 
hair, broad brow, level eyebrows, and a certain delicate 
grace which distinguished her even at this half-formed 
period from other girls of her age. Only one detail of 
her face suggested that she had experienced more of 
life’s trials than her years warranted — two little per- 
pendicular lines between her eyebrows became clearly 
marked as her father presented her to this handsome, 
ill-dressed, unshaved young man, with the loose mouth, 
square jaw, and singularly-attractive blue eyes. 

“Won’t you shake hands with me, Miss Laline?” 
Wallace asked, gently. “ Or am I too dirty ?” 

She held out her small brown hand in silence, looking 
straight up into his face as she did so. And at the ques- 
tioning gaze of her dreamy, dark eyes Armstrong’s eyes 
fell. It was absurd, of course, as he told himself after- 
wards when he recalled this incident, and due to his 
nerves being in a bad order, but it seemed as though this 
child’s look conveyed a reproach. 

“ I had no idea, Garth, that your little girl, as you 
called her, would be such a tall, well-grown young lady,” 
he said, turning to Garth to hide his sudden embarrass- 
ment. “ She looks quite fourteen or fifteen.” 

“ I am sixteen to-day,” Laline said, in full, sweet tones. 

Laline’s voice was unlike any voice which Armstrong 
had ever heard, with a sound in it which constitutes 
what the French call une voix voilee, a low-pitched 
cooing inflection, peculiarly soothing to the ear. 

“ Have you had any nice presents ?” he asked, deter- 
mining instantly to go down to the town and buy the 


12 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


pretty child some sweets, until, with a hot flush of vexa- 
tion, he remembered his empty pockets. 

“ I haven’t had any presents,” the girl answered ; and 
then, with a little break in her voice, she added, “ Papa 
had forgotten the date !” 

“ Not at all, my dear, not at all. The fact was I was 
on my way to choose you some pretty trifle when I met 
our friend here. And, as soon as you and the good 
Benoite have prepared us a little dejeuner , I will go 
down to the town and get you some little souvenir. 
But now a cutlet and a little salad will be acceptable ; 
and here” — he fumbled in his pockets and produced 
at length a coin — “ take this, my child, to Monsieur 
Desjardins, and bring a bottle of vin ordinaire. He’ll 
let you take it for cash, though we have a little account 
there.” 

Laline took a wide-brimmed Zulu straw hat from a 
nail, slung a basket over her arm, and went pattering 
down the stone-paved street on the little wooden-heeled 
shoes, into which she had thrust her feet when disturbed 
at her play. Wallace Armstrong leaned his elbows on 
the window-sill and stared after the slim figure in blue 
with hair that shone gold in the bright sunlight. 

“ How in the world,” he said to Garth, without look- 
ing round, “ do you come to have a daughter like that ? 
And what are you about letting her potter about dirty 
little wine-shops in Boulogne?” 

“ Monsieur Desjardins is our grocer — a most respectable 
person,” returned Captain Garth, joining Armstrong at 
the window and lighting a cigarette. “ Every one knows 
that Laline and I belong to the upper classes, although 
we’re not very ready with our money just now.” 

“ I’m sorry for the child,” was his companion’s only 
comment — u very sorry !” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


13 


CHAPTER II. 

Laline, for her part, had almost forgotten the time 
when she had first flushed with indignation at the notion 
of running errands for her father. 

One gets used to a great many things in three years, 
and it was three years since Laline, a forlorn little figure 
in deep mourning, had stood on the deck of a Folkestone 
steamer on her way to her widowed father and her 
motherless home. Of her father she knew very little 
indeed at that time, not having seen him for two years. 
England had become too hot to hold Mr. Garth about 
that period, and he had taken up his residence perma- 
nently in Boulogne ; but for many years before he had 
been practically a stranger in that tiny household in 
Westmoreland. The late Mrs. Garth had been a gentle, 
dreamy-eyed lady, of refined but narrow mind, fond of 
poetry, fancywork, church-decoration, and district-visit- 
ing, easily shocked, and thoroughly orthodox in her 
views on all subjects. Her great aim with regard to her 
daughter, whom she loved devotedly, was to make of 
her a refined gentlewoman, and to guard her from all 
knowledge of, and contact with, the wickedness of the 
great world outside the hills of Westmoreland. 

From this life of watchfulness, this sheltered, peaceful 
existence under the shadow of the little grey church in 
the valley, Laline was unexpectedly torn and transferred 
to an atmosphere of debt, neglect, and shiftlessness, the 
life of a ruined gamester, exiled from his native country, 
and earning by his wits a precarious subsistence in a 
back street of Boulogne. 

Before her tears for her mother’s loss were dry, Laline 
had begun to realise that Captain Garth fully intended 

2 


14 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


that she should, in some measure, make up to him for 
the hundred a year which he had lost by his wife’s death. 
He was kind to her in his manner, but he never for one 
moment understood her. When he tried to speak to her 
of her mother, she received his remarks in silence, watch- 
ing him with great eyes full of wondering pain. His 
talk jarred on the girl, and it seemed a desecration to 
hear him discuss his dead wife in his favourite terms. 

“ A good woman, a very good woman, according to her 
lights! We didn’t quite hit it off together; but I am 
not blaming her. And no doubt she has done her best 

with you ; no doubt Why, my dear, what are you 

crying for?” 

“ I would so much rather that you did not talk to me 
about mother,” the girl had said ; and Captain Garth had 
respected her wish without in the least understanding it. 

Then began a twofold existence for the dreamy, imag- 
inative child. An indoor life of poverty and hard work 
- — cooking, washing, tidying, dusting, and mending, under 
the superintendence of Benoite, until Laline could re- 
place Aurelie the bonne and spare her father the latter’s 
keep and wages, and an outdoor life of long rambles, 
sometimes by herself and sometimes in charge of the 
little Bertins’ next door, up to the vallee or down to the 
sands and along the shore to the neighbouring seaside 
villages, with her friend the sea lapping the sands at her 
feet. 

Day-dreams for ever filled her mind, sharing it with 
recollections of her happy childhood among the hills. 
Her soft, near-sighted eyes could never with bare vision 
perceive the coast of England ; but the eldest Bertin boy 
possessed a telescope, by the aid of which she could dis- 
tinguish with a bounding heart the white cliffs of her 
native land. All that she knew of joy and peace, of 
tender love and gentle sympathy, of refinement and of 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


15 


culture, came from her English experiences; her present 
life, half drudgery, half solitary wandering, was lonely 
and hard by comparison. In England she had been the 
one thought of her mother’s mind, the vicar’s favourite 
pupil, the village pet, “ little Miss Garth,” daughter of a 
lady known and honoured by all. Here, in the Rue 
Planche, she was “ la p’tite Gart ,” who ran errands, 
begged for credit from tradespeople, and looked after 
the menage with deaf and irascible old Benoite. 

Of her beauty Laline was unconscious ; a few artists 
had sketched her from memory, and she had seen the 
sketches, and wondered whether her hair really looked 
like that in the sunshine. But she had read Ivanhoe and 
other novels by Walter Scott, and her ideal of loveliness 
was the black-haired type with sloping shoulders, ala- 
baster brow, eyes black as night, and the smallest pos- 
sible mouth. 

French romances, except some especially goody-goody 
stories avowedly intended for the very young, were 
altogether unknown to her. Captain Garth respected 
the childlike innocence of his daughter’s mind and locked 
up his amusing paper-covered novels. Of her father’s 
sporting and card-playing associates Laline knew but 
little. Captain Garth received visitors in his den, which 
the girl never entered unless her father was the sole 
occupant of the room. He would have wished to pose 
before her as a high-minded, hardworking, and honour- 
able gentleman, driven from his country and his equals 
by the envious spite of a cabal and the undeserved blows 
of “ outrageous fortune but when he vapoured to his 
little girl concerning his high principles and unrecog- 
nised genius, Laline said never a word, and contented 
herself with scanning him with soft eyes which saw 
outer things but dimly, but which seemed to have the 
gift at times of divining the hidden spirit beyond. 


16 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


Walking down the rough stone-paved street on this 
particular midsummer day, Laline’s thoughts busied 
themselves with the figure of Wallace Armstrong the 
tallest, handsomest Englishman to whom she had ever 
yet spoken. No self-consciousness touched her mind; 
she knew quite well that both Mr. Armstrong and her 
father regarded her as a child, and she had not the 
slightest wish to develop into a “ young lady,” fenced in 
with conventional proprieties. Captain Garth so seldom 
introduced any of his associates to her that that fact 
alone was sufficient to attract her notice ; and then this 
powerfully-built young man with the black brows, droop- 
ing black moustache, brilliant eyes, and saturnine expres- 
sion at once interested the girl from his resemblance to 
her ideal of the Templar in Ivanhoe. 

Mr. Wallace Armstrong could not be very good, she 
decided. Her knowledge of evil was limited, but she 
opined that he played cards, and put money on horses 
and swore when they lost, and that he drank cognac, 
and perhaps did not pay his bills. His voice had sounded 
gentle enough in speaking to her, but rough and scorn- 
ful when he addressed her father. Just so must Brian 
de Bois-Guilbert’s voice have rung out, harsh and impe- 
rious, when he rated Rebecca’s father. And yet Laline 
began to wonder at the fair Jewess’s invincible dislike 
against the Templar. Meantime her little high-heeled 
feet had taken her to Monsieur Desjardins’s, and the old 
man behind the counter, grumbling, took the money she 
proffered, and bade her remind her father that his little 
account had long been unsettled. 

“La p'tite Gart is growing too tall for her short 
skirts,” his wife remarked, as Laline left the shop. “ She 
becomes une tres-jolie fille, and will soon be wanting a 
nice little beau.” 

u Bah ! It is a child 1” responded her husband. “ In 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


17 


England they do not think of love and marriage until 
they are old maids of five- or six-and-twenty. Mam’selle 
Laline has a good ten years yet.” 

Dejeuner at Eue Planche was a success that day. La- 
line cooked to perfection, and waited at table deftly. At 
the latter arrangement Wallace Armstrong demurred. 
He disliked to see so pretty a girl made into a house- 
hold drudge ; but Laline explained that Benoite’s snuff- 
taking proclivities rendered her an undesirable waitress. 
She did not add that the household resources were at 
so low an ebb that cutlets at luncheon were a luxury 
she could not permit herself; she contented herself with 
assuring Mr. Armstrong that she had already partaken 
of luncheon, dignifying by that name a plate of thin 
vegetable soup and a piece of stale bread in the kitchen. 

Eating made Wallace more hopeful. After all, as 
Captain Garth reminded him, he was six-and-twenty, 
and nephew to one of the richest men in London. Ho 
man was worthy the name, so the elder declared, who 
had not “ sown his wild oats and the prodigal son, or 
prodigal nephew, as the case might be, was always the 
favourite in the end. Card-playing was not an exciting 
pastime between two men, neither of whom possessed 
any money or any immediate certainty of procuring 
any; but habit made them gamble away the sunny 
hours of a midsummer afternoon until five o’clock, when 
Armstrong suggested that they should stroll down to 
the hotel where he had been staying since his arrival in 
Boulogne three days before, and ascertain whether by 
chance there was any answer to his appeal to his 
uncle. 

With characteristic improvidence, Wallace Armstrong 
had put up at an hotel which, although not specially 
dear as summer seaside prices go, was most certainly 
far beyond his means. Since his arrival at this estab- 
b 2* 


18 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


lishment, which was under French management and 
faced the Museum in the Grand Bue, the big shabby 
young Englishman had consumed hardly any food, but 
a large amount of drinks, and the patron within the 
office in the hall eyed him askance as he approached and 
inquired for letters. 

“ Mate, oui, Monsieur ; il y a Men une lettre” 

Wallace seized it, and the blood rushed to his face. 
The address was in his uncle’s handwriting, and the 
letter was registered ! 

“Come outside,” he said, after he had signed the 
receipt, thrusting his hand within Garth’s arm. “ I don’t 
want these prying foreigners to get wind of my af- 
fairs.” 

Standing under an awning in front of a shop, Wallace 
tore open his uncle’s letter, and Garth, watching him 
furtively under his white eyebrows, noted the swift 
changes of expression which passed over his face. First 
astonishment, then amusement, and finally a baffled and 
angered look characterised his features as he thrust the 
letter into the hands of his companion. 

“ Bead it,” he said, “ and see if your infernal cunning 
can get me out of the scrape ! It beats me !” 

Alexander Wallace’s handwriting was small and 
cramped, hut perfectly legible. His letter was written 
from his London office, and ran as follows, — 

“ Hear Nephew, — If it be true that a pious and vir- 
tuous lady has been so misguided as to link her fate with 
such an idle and dissipated ne’er-do-weel as I fear you 
have become, your wife has my heartiest sympathy. 
But I have a belief which is almost unlimited in the 
capability of a good woman for reforming a man, how- 
ever deeply he be sunk in depravity, and I intend, for 
your wife’s sake, to give you yet another chance. To 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


19 


this end I send you ten pounds to relieve your present 
necessities ; and within a week, if your wife is strong 
enough to travel, I will forward the money wherewith 
you may at once make your way to my house in London. 
But understand — my future dealings with you will de- 
pend upon your absolute truthfulness and candour in the 
matter. If I find that Mrs. Wallace Armstrong is in- 
deed what you describe — a gentle, high-minded, romantic, 
and unworldly young lady, your equal in birth, of truly 
Christian training, devoted to you, and believing in your 
higher capabilities, I will take both her and you into my 
house, which sadly needs the sweetening presence of a 
daughter for my old age. More than that ; upon your 
arrival with your wife at my office — armed, of course, 
with all necessary credentials, such as your marriage- 
certificate and such papers as shall show your wife’s 
position and home-training before you married her — I 
will provide you with immediate employment, and I will 
settle upon your wife, whose name, by-the-way, you do 
not mention, the sum of three hundred pounds a year, 
to be paid quarterly for her sole use and benefit, and to 
be increased in a given time to five hundred if I deem it 
expedient. On receipt of this letter and enclosure I 
must ask you to pay at once all that you owe at the 
hotel, to provide your wife with food and necessaries, 
and to send on to me full receipts for all amounts you 
may disburse from the enclosed ten pounds. Will you 
also tell me at what date I may expect you and your 
wife, and you shall receive by return the necessary sum 
for your fares and other expenses incidental on your 
journey. [Remember, I had not meant, nor had I wished, 
to see your face again ; but, if a good woman has been 
brought to believe in you, and to link her fate with 
yours, I will try to forget your past conduct, and will 
give you yet one more chance of attaining that posi- 


20 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


tion which, but for your follies and vices, should be 
yours already. 

“ Your uncle, 

“Alexander Wallace.” 

Captain Garth read the letter twice through. Then 
he returned it to its owner and began pulling reflectively 
at his white moustache. 

“ My boy,” he observed, “ it is a poser — certainly a 
poser! But the chance is not one to let slip. Three 
hundred a year going begging for want of a wife. We 
must have *a petit verre together at the nearest cafe out 
of this sunshine and think it over. Three hundred a 
year !” 

Oddly enough, as he reflected, it was the exact amount 
of the late Mrs. Garth’s life-interest, which had passed 
away on her death to her own family. A third of that 
had been his ; and although two pounds a week was an 
absurd trifle for a gentleman of his taste and social posi- 
tion, yet, with only himself to keep, it had often sufficed 
in bad times to keep the wolf from the door. And times 
grew worse instead of better, and the three hundred 
would probaby soon be increased to five — more than that, 
if once Wallace Armstrong was restored to his uncle’s 
favour, the lion’s share of old Wallace’s wealth might 
well be his some day, since, of the banker’s two nephews, 
he had undoubtedly at that time been the best-loved. 
Such a chance must by no means be allowed to slip from 
this young man’s grasp. 

It must not be supposed that Captain Garth’s solici- 
tude on Armstrong’s behalf was wholly unselfish. At 
fifty-six Captain Garth was almost incapable of formu- 
lating any plan into which self-interest entered not, and 
he clearly wanted, in his own parlance, to “ make a good 
thing out of” Wallace Armstrong. He set then to work 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


21 


drawing up a mental inventory of the potential brides 
with any one of whom, at the shortest possible notice, 
he might unite his young friend in matrimony. 

“ There is only one thing to be done, of course,” he 
said, sipping the cognac Armstrong had ordered on the 
strength of his uncle’s remittance, and jotting down 
names in pencil on his cuff under the awning of the cafe 
— “ there is only one thing to be done. You must get 
married.” 

Wallace stared at him, and then laughed contemptu- 
ously. 

“ If that’s all you’ve got to suggest,” he observed, “ I 
can dispense with your advice !” 

“ Now, my boy, be reasonable ! With a wife you can 
get your fare to England at once advanced, return to 
the bosom of your family with everything forgotten and 
forgiven, enjoy the fatted calf, obtain in all probability 
a position in your uncle’s bank, live in his house rent- 
free, pocket a tidy little income, and eventually succeed 
to the bulk of your uncle’s property. Without a wife 
— well, I don’t want to be too personal, but you know 
best the details of your present financial position.” 

“ You talk as if getting married were as easy as put- 
ting on one’s coat !” Armstrong broke out impatiently. 
“ I’ve had a rough time of it lately, but, thank Heaven, 
I’ve never been dragged down by a nagging, whining 
woman. I’ve never yet met the woman who was worth 
spending half an hour’s thought upon — an extravagant, 
capricious, vain, mercenary, hypocritical crew ” 

“ Perhaps your experiences have been unfortunate ?” 
suggested Garth, soothingly. “ There are plenty of 
nice girls about, plenty, if one knows where to find 
them.” 

“ Nice girls,” sneered Armstrong, “ who would be 
ready at a moment’s notice to marry a penniless scamp 


22 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


with scarcely a rag to his back who hasn’t even the 
decency to pretend to be in love with them !” 

“ Nice girls,” Garth repeated, imperturbably, “ who 
are not very happy at home, and who would be glad 
enough to make a good wife to a fine handsome young 
fellow, nephew to old Alexander Wallace, who would 
provide them with a comfortable home and a liberal 
allowance of pocket-money.” 

“ You mean that I can buy a wife with all the domestic 
virtues for this promised three hundred a year?” Arm- 
strong inquired, harshly. 

“ Well, yes — that’s one way of putting it, if you like !” 
returned Garth, his patience beginning to give way. 
“ Great Scot, man ! You can’t expect to have sentiment 
thrown in, too, in matters of this kind ! What do most 
girls marry for ? Why, a comfortable home, of course. 
And when they marry for anything else, such as a fine 
figure or a twinkling eye or a handsome pair of mous- 
taches, what is the result? When the tax-collector and 
the butcher’s and baker’s bills come in at the door, love 
flies out at the window. It’s all a matter of money and 
expediency. They manage these things much better 
here in France.” 

“You forget,” said Wallace, “that, when I wrote to 
my uncle a week ago, I described myself as already 
married. Even if this paragon of a bride can be dis- 
covered, there would be, I suppose, some necessary delay 
before the ceremony could be performed ” 

“ About three weeks.” 

“ Just so. And my wily old uncle has requested me to 
bring my certificate with me.” 

“ That might be arranged. A little mistake as to the 
date, and the necessary delay before your wife is strong 
enough to travel — remember, you said she was starving, 
and a girl doesn’t get over that in a day.” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


23 


“And, after all this, where is the girl?” 

The Captain recommenced pulling his white moustache 
and glanced at the initials scrawled in pencil on his 
cuff. 

“ I have a friend in the town,” he began again, after a 
few seconds’ reflection. “ Talented man — Oxford man — 
but down on his luck. His daughters are good-looking 
girls and very much admired. The younger one is 
really handsome, a big blonde, very fine girl indeed — 
Nanny Westbrook. I could take you round this evening 
and introduce you.” 

“ How old is she ?” 

“Oh, ha — one can never tell a woman’s age! Not 
more than thirty, and looks much less. A very good 
amateur actress, and could do all the parson’s-orphan- 
daughter-business thoroughly well. A really jolly girl, 
full of fun, with no nonsense about her. The best 
waltzer in the town, too. Last carnival ball here she 
went as a Pierrette, and I assure you she was the belle 
of the room. Didn’t look more than eighteen, on my 
honour.” 

“None of your carnival-ball hacks for me !” said Arm- 
strong, in a tone of disgust. “ I know the type, and I 
hate it ! If I’ve got to put up with a wife at all, I’ll 
have one who’ll stay at home and behave decently and 
give me no trouble. I don’t think they grow them 
among your Boulogne acquaintances.” 

Two Frenchmen, who were sipping coffee and absinthe 
at an adjoining table, broke at this moment into lively 
expressions of admiration at sight of a young girl 
coming up from the quay. 

“Look well, Jules! Is she not ravishing, the little 
English girl? She is English assuredly; no French 
girl so pretty as that would be promenading about all 
alone. It is not often that the English have such pretty 


24 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


feet. But, sapristi , what a dress ! It is rather like a 
blue-bag than a gown! These English girls have no 
coquetry !” 

The object of their remarks was none other than 
Laline Garth, fresh from a long swim out to sea, her 
loose auburn hair drying on her shoulders in the sun, 
the low, level rays of which shone in her soft, dark eyes 
and lit up the bright tints of her cheeks and lips. Hers 
was the beaute du diable which nothing can spoil — not 
even shapeless gowns, ill-fitting silk-gloves, and a Zulu 
hat which cost fifty centimes — the sparkling evanescent 
loveliness of a child merging into a maiden. 

Wallace Armstrong turned in his seat at the French- 
man’s words and looked fixedly under his level, black 
brows at Laline as she climbed the hill with swift, 
springing steps. 

“ Garth,” he said, suddenly, “ I’ve made up my mind 
to take your advice. And I’ll marry your daughter 
Laline.” 


CHAPTER III. 

Captain Garth’s second petit verre of cognac almost 
dropped from his fingers on its way to his lips in his 
astonishment at his young friend’s proposition. 

“Laline,” he repeated, blankly — “you marry Laline? 
Why, man, she’s a child — a baby !” 

“She is sixteen,” Armstrong repeated, coolly, “and 
she’d look older if you dressed her properly. French 
girls of all classes marry at sixteen.” 

“So do English — factory-hands!” Garth broke in, 
bluntly. “ But the daughters of English gentlemen 
haven’t left the schoolroom at that age.” 

“ Your daughter has. What are you making of her ? 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


25 


A household drudge — nothing more or less! It’s no 
good coming any of the parental love-business with me, 
Garth. I’vo got to marry apparently, and my wife must 
be a pretty, young English girl of blameless reputation, 
connected with the clergy, and all that sort of thing. 
Well, from what you tell me of your little girl, her 
mother brought her up in a way that would be quite 
after my old psalm-singing uncle’s heart. I don’t pre- 
tend to be in love with her; but I’ve never seen a 
prettier or sweeter face than hers; and, even if she 
can’t be a wife or a companion to me at first, we shall no 
doubt grow as fond of each other in due time as most 
married people. She has just the face and voice to get 
round Uncle Alec. I’m hanged if I can understand how 
she comes to be your daughter ? She’s not in the least 
like you, or, you may take my word for it, I shouldn’t 
want to marry her ! Of course I don’t expect you to 
agree to anything that isn’t to your own advantage. 
Your daughter can’t be worse off than she is here ; and 
I’m ready to offer you compensation for the loss of her 
services. Once she’s married me, she’s got to be an 
orphan, and you’ve got to be a dead clergyman ; but, as 
you’ll be paid something for keeping quiet, that won’t 
matter.” 

Captain Garth glanced at his proposed son-in-law 
under his white eyebrows, and his expression was by no 
means friendly. A lifetime of snubs and shifts had not 
succeeded in destroying the man’s conceit and self-im- 
portance, and only the thought of old Alexander Wal- 
lace’s millions checked his desire to resent Mr. Arm- 
strong’s studied insolence of tone and words. Even 
now he would at once have rejected the young man’s 
proposal from sheer personal dislike but for the fact 
that the little household in Eue Planche was financially 
in a very bad way indeed, and that the precarious living 
b 3 


26 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


which the self-styled captain earned as bookmaker, gam- 
bler, speculator in antiques and curios, cicerone, and 
money-lender, had of late brought in less and less grist 
to the mill. Yet somewhere in Eandolph Garth’s tor- 
tuous mind there lurked an appreciation for what is 
good and pure, and he heartily wished that some other 
man’s daughter and not his own could be sacrificed to 
Wallace Armstrong. 

For it would be a sacrifice. Garth knew it, with his 
experience of the seamy side of life and the worst quali- 
ties of his fellow-men. He could read it in the fierceness 
and sullenness of Armstrong’s expression, in the puffi- 
ness of the skin under his eyes and their bloodshot 
whites, in the shakiness of the strong brown hand which 
raised the glass to his lips, and in the lips themselves, 
over-full and sensual in outline, perpetually curving in 
an ugly sneer. 

As if to emphasise the contrast between her and the 
man who had asked her hand in marriage, Laline her- 
self stopped on the opposite side of the street and began 
talking and laughing with a group of French children, 
comprising the little Bertins and others of her neigh- 
bours. The little white-headed, brown-faced, toddling 
things pulled at her hands ; evidently they all wished 
her to go down again to the sands with them, and she 
was as plainly pleading her household duties as her 
excuse. 

“ Voyons done , Laline 1 Viens avec nous !” 

Laline laughed and shook her head. Her small, regu- 
lar teeth shone white as a child’s between her parted red 
lips. The two Frenchmen beneath the cafe awning sat 
up, twirled their moustaches, and wasted many an ogle 
over the road, tributes to her beauty which Laline was 
too short-sighted to see, and which, if she had seen them, 
would have filled her with wonder. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


27 


The sight of his daughter seemed to trouble Garth’s 
conscience. It was almost as though he heard the voice 
of her dead mother in his ear, begging him to remember 
his trust and to guard Laline against such men as the 
one who sat by his side. 

“ It is nonsense,” he muttered, suddenly, “ to talk of 
marrying a child like that ! It is not as if she were even 
precocious — she has scarcely left off playing with her 
dolls. In a year or two’s time it will be quite early 
enough for her to think of sweethearts. Besides, she 
wouldn’t dream of leaving me and her home for a stranger; 
and the days of a stern parent coercing his child into a 
hated marriage are over, if they ever existed.” 

“Will you let me try and persuade her?” suggested 
Armstrong. “ You don’t see the best side of me ; but 
then I have an old grudge against you. And I can be 
very nice when I choose.” 

Before Garth could answer, Armstrong had risen and 
crossed the sunny street to where the girl stood talking 
to the laughing children. His long shadow fell across 
Laline’s face as she stooped to kiss the youngest Bertin, 
and a sudden silence came upon the erstwhile animated 
group. 

“I wanted to know, Miss Garth,” Wallace began, in a 
tone of genial kindness, “ whether you and your young 
friends would like some sweets and pastry, because I am 
going to buy some myself at a certain fascinating shop 
at the corner of the B-ue de la Paix, and, as I am certain 
to make myself ill if I go in all by myself, I propose 
that you should all come with me and protect me.” 

The children’s shyness vanished at such a proposition ; 
and very soon Captain Garth, from his seat before the 
cafe , saw a little procession pass down towards the quay ; 
in front, two little Bertin boys and Maggie Royston, aged 
eleven, from No. 15, Rue Planche, and, a little way behind 


28 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


them, Laline, leading two smaller Bertins by the hand, 
while a younger Royston trotted contentedly by the side 
of the big shabbily-dressed young man with the blue 
eyes and the black moustache, and grasped his fingers 
confidingly. 

After all, the Captain told himself, there must be a 
lot of good in a man so fond of children as Armstrong 
appeared to be. He was still little more than a boy, 
and would probably settle down now that he was given 
another chance, and become quite a respectable member 
of society. Reformed rakes proverbially make the best 
husbands ; and it was not so easy nowadays to marry a 
girl without a penny to her name that she could afford 
to be over-particular as to the character of her suitors. 
Besides, what was there against Armstrong? A little 
over-partiality for cards, for drink, and for fast society, 
a little mistake as to a certain signature on a certain 
cheque ; mere trifles these, such as could easily be lived 
down and forgotten by any man with a decent balance 
at his banker’s. Laline would be kindly treated — Alex- 
ander Wallace would see to that. The old gentleman 
was clearly longing to fold a daughter to his heart; and, 
once Laline was installed in his house, there was little 
doubt but that she would soon become indispensable to 
his happiness. 

“ She’s a good girl, an excellent little girl,” the Captain 
said to himself; “ and, ’pon my soul, I think it’s the best 
thing I can do for her ! She seems quite to take to the 
fellow. He’s a gentleman, and may some day be worth 
his twenty-five thousand a year. She’s getting too tall 
and too pretty for those childish pinafore frocks, and I 
can’t afford to dress her well. I wonder how much he 
means to offer me ? He’s deucedly hard and sharp for a 
young man ; but, if I let him marry Laline, he couldn’t 
surely think of putting me off with less than three 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


29 


pounds a week, to be raised to two hundred a year later 
on. I must have it all down in black and white, though, 
for it’s my belief he’s a slippery customer. Curse his 
impudent airs !” 

From which soliloquy it may be gathered that Captain 
Garth was gradually reconciling himself to the prospect 
of parting from his only child. 

He did not attempt to join his daughter and her com- 
panions. If Armstrong really could contrive to impress 
Laline favourably, he should have a fair field and no 
favour; and, with this idea in his mind, the Captain 
presently betook himself to his favourite billiard-table in 
the town, where he talked largely to his customary ac- 
quaintances of his young friend Wallace Armstrong, 
godson and favourite nephew of old Alexander Wallace 
the banker, and certain heir to his vast fortune'; and, on 
the strength of Armstrong’s future wealth, he succeeded 
in borrowing five francs from one of the habitues of the 
table. 

At a quarter to seven it occurred to him that Wallace 
Armstrong must stand him a dinner out of his uncle’s 
cheque ; so, putting down his billiard-cue, he thrust his 
fingers jauntily through his white curls before a looking- 
glass, set his hat a little on one side, and sallied forth on 
his young friend’s track. He judged that Laline and the 
children had probably gone home, and was therefore 
greatly surprised at hearing his own name cried from a 
fiacre which was being driven through the principal street 
of the town with the rapid and zigzag course of the Gallic 
cabman. Within were seated Wallace Armstrong and 
Laline in the places of honour, and on Wallace’s knee 
was placed the youngest Mademoiselle Bertin, hugging 
a new 'doll and eating sweets from a paper bag. Three 
more children with their backs to the horses, and the 
eldest Bertin boy on the box, all looked equally hot, 
8 * 


30 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


tired, and happy, and laden with sweets and toys, while 
Laline’s eyes shone like stars in her excitement and 
delight. 

The toys and sweets had not cost very much, and even 
the enchanting drive was not an unreasonably-priced 
item. But this good fairy of a Mr. Armstrong had con- 
fided to Laline that he owed her father a great deal of 
money, and had been by him authorised to spend a part 
of it upon her. As a result, she was wearing her 
first beautiful shop-made hat of black open-work straw 
and black lace, with a wreath of small, pink rosebuds out- 
lining her fresh, young face, and other rosebuds deco- 
rating the crown. Fifteen francs had been the price of 
this triumph of millinery ; and in all her life afterwards 
Laline never again derived from any clothes the abso- 
lute joy the wearing of this first smart hat afforded 
her. 

Sweets and cakes, too, she loved, as do all girls of six- 
teen; and, most of all, she enjoyed having her small 
friends about her to participate in these unexpected 
favours of fortune. Her frank gratitude made Wallace 
wince more than once ; and, when she thanked him for 
his goodness, he interrupted her almost roughly. 

“ Don’t, Miss Garth, please ! I am not good, and I 
don’t like it !” 

At his tone a startled look came into her eyes, and, 
seeing it, he bent towards her, speaking very gently. 

“ The fact is, I am very fond of children — small ones 
like these, and grown-up ones like you.” 

“ Oh, but you wouldn’t call me grown up, even in this 
hat, would you ?” she asked, with a happy little laugh. 
“ I think I’m a tiresome sort of age — neither the one 
thing nor the other.” 

“ And which would you rather be ?” 

“ A child, if I could be a child as I used to bo. I was 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 31 

so happy ! But that seems a long time ago. I shouldn’t 
like to be a child again as things are now 1” 

He noted the sadness of her tone, and instantly divined 
that she was thinking with regret of the old days when 
her mother was still alive. But he was too tactful to try 
to seek her confidence as yet. 

“I suppose you don’t often have treats, since such 
simple things please you ?” he presently suggested-. 

“ Oh, never 1” she answered, promptly. “ You see 
papa has to work very hard, and cannot afford it. But 
this has been a most beautiful birthday ; and, thanks to 
you, Mr. Armstrong, I feel a regular Cinderella, and you 
are the good fairy.” 

“ I would rather be the prince.” 

“Would you ?” 

“ Yes. You see he married Cinderella.” 

His tone was so entirely playful that Laline attached 
fto importance to his words, though she remembered 
them long afterwards. Her freedom from self-con- 
sciousness interested and pleased him. He began to feel 
regretful that he could not wait until this sweet, childish 
frankness developed into a maturer charm. This was 
a school-girl to pet and caress, not a woman to love as a 
wife. But, half-fledged bird as she was, she was yet 
the prettiest thing he had ever seen ; and to Armstrong, 
who had no domestic tastes, the idea of an unworldly, 
unsuspicious little creature, who would obey implicitly, 
exact nothing in return, and contentedly spend her time 
alone with her needlework by her own fireside, was more 
agreeable than the prospect of the love and companion- 
ship of the wisest and the most helpful and devoted wife 
ever sent by Heaven to bless a lonely man’s career. 


32 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


CHAPTER IT. 

That was a gala day in Laline’s life, a day towards 
which, in after years, she often looked back with a swift 
pain at her heart. 

How kind they had all seemed ! Wallace Armstrong 
was gentleness itself, and there was in his manner 
towards her a blending of protecting care with playful 
admiration peculiarly flattering to a girl in her early 
teens. Her father, too, was unusually indulgent ; and, 
when he got into the fiacre at Wallace’s invitation, and 
drove back with them to the High Town and the Rue 
Planche, it was quite a triumphal journey, and the ar- 
rival at number seven created considerable sensation. 
Even Benoite was almost civil. Decidedly, she told her- 
self, Monsieur le Capitaine had got hold of a rich and 
foolish young man, to whom gold was as dross — a riche 
Anglais eccentrique, who might very possibly be coaxed 
into paying the arrears of monsieur’s rent. So that 
Benoite, like every one else, saw everything coleur de 
rose that evening. And when Laline at last went to bed, 
after a dinner — a real substantial dinner, with good red 
wine — her first dinner at a restaurant — and in her new 
hat, too, with her father and his friend — she laid her 
head upon her pillow, convinced of her mistake in sup- 
posing that Wallace Armstrong was a Brian de Bois- 
Guilbert, a morose and evil-minded Templar, when in 
reality he was a Prince Charming! 

And, while Laline slept peacefully above, dreaming of 
triumphal drives, of marvellous new hats, and unlimited 
bonbons and toys for her friends the children, Mr. Wal- 
lace Armstrong and her father, in the shabby smoke- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


33 


laden salon below, concocted between them the following 
letter for the delectation of Mr. Alexander Wallace in 
London, — 

“ My dear Uncle Alec, — I can’t tell you how grateful 
I felt at receiving your letter and enclosure. Things 
were at a pretty bad pass for me and my poor Laline 
when your unexpected help arrived. I say unexpected, 
because I know quite well I didn’t deserve it ; but you 
have given me another chance, and I mean to profit by 
it. Unfortunately, I fear that it will be quite a fortnight 
before my wife is fit to travel. You see, owing to my 
ill-luck, she has had a rough time of it lately, and she is 
young — very little more than a child, in fact — and un- 
used to privations. Happily the doctor, whom I at once 
fetched in on receiving your kindly help, declares her 
constitution to be so good that with rest and nourishing 
food she will be herself again in a very short time. But he 
strongly recommends me to defer our journey for a fort- 
night or ten days, at the least. My wife’s maiden name 
was Laline Garth ; her mother was a country rector’s 
daughter, and she has been most carefully trained in all 
womanly virtues, besides being an excellent little cook 
and housekeeper. She is wonderfully pretty, although 
very thin, poor child! She is not yet eighteen, and 
knows next to nothing of the world. In short, she is 
much, very much too good for me! I am not sending 
you the receipts you ask for, as at every moment I find 
some new thing we are in need of. Poor Laline and I 
haven’t even decent clothing yet. You may well say 
that under the circumstances it was madness to marry. 
I admit that perhaps it was ; but such madness might 
well be inspired by such a girl as Laline. However, you 
must see her yourself and judge whether I have over- 
praised her, and whether among my many faults there 


34 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


may not be counted unto me the saving virtue of know- 
ing and loving a good woman when I see one. 

“ Always your affectionate nephew, 

“Wallace Armstrong.” 

“The difficulty now is,” observed Wallace, as he fast- 
ened the letter and addressed the envelope, after study- 
ing the contents with his mentor and friend, “ to coach 
Miss Laline up in her part of the business. She seems 
somehow or other to possess a good deal of the awk- 
ward George Washington faculty. It will be a delicate 
matter to make her understand that you were an esti- 
mable clergyman, and that you are slumbering peaceful 
within the tomb.” 

“The best plan,” advised the Captain, thoughtfully 
sipping at his cognac, “ is to warn her that your uncle 
disapproves of all men connected with the turf, and to 
beg her to think of me as dead. Of course it is not 
a particularly pleasant experience for an affectionate 
father ” 

“ You are going to be paid for it 1” Wallace inter- 
rupted, with his usual brutal directness. “ It is not as 
though you were being asked to do anything for nothing !” 

“And, by-the-bye, the sum was never fixed,” said 
Garth, resting his elbows on the table and scanning his 
prospective son-in-law sharply. “ I must have all that 
clearly settled before I make that call with you on the 
Consul to-morrow morning.” 

And here a difference of opinion was made manifest 
which seemed to threaten a serious breach between the 
worthy pair. Wallace Armstrong was inclined to dismiss 
his future father-in-law’s pretensions with the offer of a 
pound a week for life, or so long as he should retain his 
uncle’s favour. But Laline’s father had prepared a fixed 
scale of charges, from which nothing would induce him 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 35 

to depart. He was making a great sacrifice, he declared ; 
he was relinquishing the love, companionship, and ser- 
vices of his only living relative, the pride of his heart, 
the legacy of his lost wife, and, out of sheer kindness 
and compassion for an old friend in difficulties, he was 
giving her in marriage to a man who he greatly feared 
would never make her truly happy. 

“ And if you should grow tired of her or become un- 
kind to her, where would the poor child fly but to me, 
her old father, whom she has been forced to consider dead, 
but who, in his old age, must at least be sufficiently well 
off to provide her with a home when all else fails her !” 

Tears stood in Captain Garth’s eyes at his own elo- 
quence, to which the younger man listened quite un- 
moved. 

Two pounds a week, to be paid quarterly from the date 
of the marriage, three pounds a week when the income 
allowed by Alexander Wallace should be raised to five 
hundred a year ; and in the event of the banker dying 
and leaving a will favourable to Armstrong, an income 
for Garth of two hundred and fifty a year for the 
remainder of his life. 

Until fully three o’clock the two men sat smoking and 
drinking cognac, while they quarrelled and haggled and 
finally cut cards over the settlement of the elder man’s 
allowance in the event of his giving his daughter in mar- 
riage to the ex- forger and family scapegrace before him. 
Hot until the early sunrise forced its rays through the 
green shutters did they part, Eandolph Garth having 
won all he demanded, and retiring to bed in high good 
humour; while Wallace, disdainfully refusing the offer 
of a “ shake-up” in the salle-a-manger, took his way 
down to the town and his hotel, cursing his future father- 
in-law for a swindling old reprobate, and his uncle for a 
narrow-minded old skinflint and imbecile. 


36 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


The bargain was effected, a bargain which was to 
transfer the charge of a girl — young, beautiful, inno- 
cent, and friendless — from an old scamp to a young one. 
Garth and Armstrong had arranged their visit to the 
English Consul after they had renovated their toilets 
with the remainder of Alexander Wallace’s gift; and at 
the Consul’s office due notice was given of the marriage 
between Laline Garth, aged seventeen, daughter of 
Eandolph Garth, an English subject residing in Bou- 
logne, and Wallace Armstrong, aged twenty-six, of no 
occupation, whose present address was the Hotel Men- 
don, Boulogne. 

The one part of the affair which both men appeared 
to shirk was breaking to Laline the news that she 
was to be married in three weeks’ time. Captain Garth 
in some measure paved the way for the announcement 
by taking her into his confidence concerning his st&te 
of hopeless insolvency, a thing he had never before 
done. Laline sat on the window-sill opposite to him in 
the little salle-a-manger , listening very quietly to the tale 
of his embarrassments, her soft dark eyes fixed intently 
on his face. She knew quite well, to her bitter mortifi- 
cation, the ever-increasing amounts they owed to Be- 
noite and to the tradespeople, whose patience was in 
several cases altogether exhausted. She herself ate 
little but bread and butter, and drank nothing but water; 
but her father was extremely fond of the pleasures of 
the table, and invariably spent his last franc on wine or 
tempting charcuterie for his own delectation. 

At the end of his recital of his debts and difficulties, 
which were real enough, Laline looked up suddenly. 

“ Papa,” she said, “ I have an idea. It’s not the first 
time it has come into my mind, but I didn’t like to speak 
of it to you before! Why shouldn’t I go out and earn 
some money as a nursery governess ? I speak French 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 37 

as well as English, and I’m very fond of children. Then 
the money I earned would help to pay the bills.” 

“ My dear child,” her father began, rather nonplussed 
by her offer and by the earnestness of her tone, which 
taught him that this plan had become fixed in her 
mind, “ do you look like a nursery governess ? No one 
would engage you !” 

“ But Mr. Armstrong took me to Madame Caillard’s 
shop yesterday and made me order a gray cashmere 
dress and be measured for it — a proper grown-up dress, 
touching the ground all around; he said he owed you 
money, and you had told him to buy me what I liked. 
You can’t think how grown-up I shall look in it. And 
he told me to look in the hair-dresser’s shops and notice 
how hair was dressed now, because I am growing too 
tall to wear my hair tied back with a ribbon. And I 
thought all the time of this nursery-governess idea, and 
was delighted, for I am longing to pay off the bills !” 

“ My dear little girl,” put in her father, who had been 
listening with ill-concealed impatience, “ if you had the 
least idea of a nursery-governess’s duties and salary, 
you wouldn’t entertain such a project for a moment. 
Nursery governesses are treated much worse than nurse- 
maids, are worked about thirteen hours a day, and paid 
from fifteen to twenty pounds a year. You, at your 
age, and without experience, could not hope to receive 
more than about twelve or fourteen pounds a year to 
start with, and you would be simply a nurse-girl, a ser- 
vant, to take your orders from some vulgar and domi- 
neering nurse. Even if by a miracle you received the 
highest possible salary for such a situation, of what use 
would twenty pounds a year be to me ? Five hundred 
francs, out of which your washing and clothes must come 
— and we owe about eight thousand francs, at least. No, 
no, my dear, it’s not to be thought of! They must come 

4 


38 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


and carry off our poor little sticks, I suppose, as they 
have done before ; and, if the very worst comes, they can 
put me in prison.” 

This conversation impressed and pained Laline deeply. 
She was greatly disappointed at the manner in which 
her father disparaged the possible help she was capable 
of affording him, and fell to wondering if there was no 
other way out of their difficulties. Down to the pier 
she wandered, late on a hot afternoon, to think over the 
subject that was troubling her. In appearance she was 
a little more sedate than she had been on her first intro- 
duction to Wallace Armstrong twelve days before. Her 
abundant hair was looped up, and her pink cotton frock, 
fashioned by her own hands, made some attempt to fol- 
low the lines of her slim figure. Wallace Armstrong 
had bought her a pair of long Suede gloves, of which she 
was extremely proud ; so that, with these additions to 
her toilet, and her new black-lace hat with the rosebuds, 
she looked a very different being to “ la p'tite Gart ,” with 
the flying hair and blue cotton blouse of a few days ago. 

It was of Wallace the girl was thinking as she sat at 
the end of the pier, looking down into the shining green 
water. He seemed so rich and so kind ; would he not 
help her father out of his difficulties, especially as he 
owed him money, on his own confession? She grew 
suddenly hot and unhappy when she thought of the 
many francs she had allowed Mr. Armstrong to waste 
over sweets and trifles to herself, while all the time there 
was such desperate need of money at home. Was it 
possible that her father was too proud to ask for help 
from his friend? But no; she at once dismissed that 
idea as unlikely. From her knowledge of her father she 
was not inclined to think that motives of delicacy would 
ever restrain him from borrowing money wherever he 
could. Laline was not in the least suspicious, but in her 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


39 


dreamy, half-childish, half- womanly nature there lurked 
a strange intuition, which illuminated more than any 
reasoning powers could the natures of those around her. 

Of the mercenary plot by which she was to be made 
the means of supplying her father and Wallace Arm- 
strong with money for their vices and extravagances by 
her marriage with the latter, she had not the slightest 
suspicion. More than once she had been startled by the 
troubled and remorseful expression which crept into Mr. 
Armstrong’s face when she raised her clear eyes to his. 
The young man had the saving grace to realise the paltry 
part he was playing, and for three days now he had 
avoided Laline, and had spent his time in bars and bil- 
liard-rooms of the town. He was fully determined to 
marry her, and to play the part of a kindly and affec- 
tionate brother until she could grow to love him. That 
she would do this sooner or later he took as a foregone 
conclusion, sharing, as he did with most men, the idea 
that any woman married to him was bound in time to 
love him. But meanwhile he did not care to meet the 
long trustful gaze of her soft dark eyes; and it was 
almost with a feeling of vexation that this afternoon, as 
he strolled down the pier, smoking a cigar, with his 
hands in his pockets and his straw hat tilted over his 
eyes to protect them from the sun, he found himself face 
to face with Laline, and saw the look of pleasure on her 
face as she recognised him. 

“We haven’t seen you for three days,” she said, as he 
took a seat by her side. “ I began to think you must 
have left Boulogne.” 

“Without saying ‘Good-bye’ to you? Was that 
likely?” 

He was to be married to this girl in ten days — they 
were to pass their future lives together. And yet, seated 
here by her side in the sunshine, Wallace Armstrong, 


40 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


ordinarily the most self-possessed of men, felt tongue- 
tied and abashed before her. 

She was wonderfully pretty, but her very freshness 
and fairness became a reproach. He knew that he did 
not love her — knew, too, that her attraction for him lay 
chiefly in the utter dissimilarity between her and such 
women as he had heretofore chiefly noticed. The thought 
of his own unworthiness, while it failed to turn him 
from his purpose, served to render him morose and dis- 
contented. Laline saw his heavy black eyebrows contract 
into an ugly frown, and involuntarily drew back from 
him. 

“Are you vexed with us in any way?” she asked, 
timidly. “ With my father or myself, I mean?” 

“Don’t talk of your father in the same breath with 
yourself?” he said, harshly. “ I never think of you as 
in any way akin.” 

Laline flushed painfully. 

“ Please remember,” she said, in a low voice, “ that he 
is my father.” 

“ Do you love him for that, simply because you are 
told it is your duty?” 

“ I hope I do,” she answered very low. “But I can- 
not love him as I loved her — my mother.” 

“ Well, you will leave him some day, of course, and 
will find some one who will appreciate you better. Tell 
me, Miss Laline — have you any sweethearts in the 
town ?” 

She opened her dark eyes wide and laughed. 

“ Dear, no !” she answered, without the least hesita- 
tion. “How should I have time for such things? I 
am always busy, you know.” 

“ Spoiling your pretty hands with rough housework !” 

“ Ah, but X remember what you said the other day, 
and am going to take great care of my nails. And 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 41 

mother always taught me to wear gloves in house- 
work.” 

“ Don’t you sometimes want to go back to England ?” 

Such a transfiguration took place in her face at the 
words! Her eyes shone, her cheeks flushed, her lips 
quivered. 

“ Ah !” she whispered, “ I try not to think how much 
1 want to go back there !” 

“ Would you thank any one who would take you?” 

“As a governess, do you mean? But it would put 
papa to such expense if I were to leave him. And I 
think — I think there is something or some one that pre- 
vents his ever going back there at all.” 

“ But if, for your sake, some one came forward and 
paid all your father’s debts, and provided for him com- 
fortably, and then sailed away with you in one of those 
nice white-funnelled steamers, and gave you a beautiful 
home in England, and surrounded you with everything 
that money and forethought could provide, and all for 
love of you, what would you say ?” 

“ Why, who would do such a thing ?” 

“ Some one who is very fond of you. Some one not 
very good, but who believes you could make him better 
by your sweet influence. Some one whose home is very 
lonely without a bright-faced Laline to look after things, 
and to sing about the house as I have heard you sing 
at the Bue Planche. Some one wbo loves you, Laline.” 

She stared into his face with wondering eyes which 
betrayed no self-consciousness. 

“ It sounds like a fairy-tale,” she said. 

“ It is true, all the same. You are Cinderella, and I 
am a degenerate Fairy Prince, Laline !” 


4 * 


42 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


CHAPTER V. 

Thus far had Wallace Armstrong proceeded in his 
unique love-making, when the lady he meant to wed in 
a few days’ time disconcerted him by bursting into a 
hearty peal of laughter. 

“ Look at my hand,” she said, pulling off her glove 
and showing a soft pink palm. “ I had my fortune told 
several months ago, and I am not to fall in love until I 
am years older than I am now.” 

“ Give me your hand,” he said. “ I know something 
of palmistry, too.” 

This statement was absolutely untrue. But, as he 
meant to leave no means untried to gain his end, and 
could see that the girl half believed in the fortune told 
by her hand, he resolved to practise on her childish 
credulity and superstition. In truth, he did not know 
one line from another, and could only decide that it 
was a nice soft girl's hand and eminently kissable. 

“ Show me your line of fate !” he said, peremptorily. 

Laline eagerly pointed it out. 

“ As I suspected,” he said, crumpling her hand together 
to emphasise the lines and looking absorbed in the study 
of them ; “ very early in your career you fall under the 
influence of a man of far stronger will than yours. His 
line of fate and yours run side by side, and only death 
can separate them 1” 

He spoke with much solemnity, but, more than his 
words, the magnetism of his touch affected Laline’s sen- 
sitive nature. She shivered and turned pale. 

“ Can you really read that in my hand ?” she asked, 
fearfully. 

“ Clearly. This man will love you, and you will not 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


43 


be able to escape from him. Before you are seventeen 
you will be his wife.” 

“ Oh, it’s impossible 1” 

“ Not at all. It’s inevitable,” he said — “ written in- 
delibly, for all who understand to read, here in the centre 
of your hand!” 

And, as he spoke in slow impressive tones, he pointed 
his finger at random into her upturned palm. Looking 
up to see the effect of his prophecy, he found that she 
was leaning back in her seat, pale to the lips. 

“ What is the matter, child?” he exclaimed. 

“You will laugh,” she answered, in a low troubled 
tone, “ but, as you held my hand and told me these 
things, something flashed into my head that you were 
right, and that there would be in my life a will against 
which I should fight in vain. The feeling terrified me, 
and I can’t forget it !” 

She raised her hands to her eyes, in which tears were 
shining, and pressed them close. Wallace Armstrong 
watched her, surprised and amused by what he con- 
sidered her folly and weak-mindedness. In reality La- 
line was neither foolish nor specially weak-minded, only 
abnormally sensitive to influences to which a coarser 
nature would have been impervious. Looking into 
Wallace Armstrong’s bold bright eyes, in the depths of 
which a scornful smile was lurking, the young girl 
seemed to read there, better than any fortune-teller 
could inform her, a will, selfish, resolute, and cruel, a 
nature attracted by and yet strongly antagonistic to her 
own, a personality she might grow to fear and even, it 
might be, to hate, but which she would never be able to 
regard with indifference. 

Not in so many words did these convictions come upon 
her, but the sense of them grew as she gazed, her soft, 
near-sighted eyes, that had something of the wistful- 


44 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


ness of a dumb animal, straining to realise what she 
saw. 

At last Wallace broke the silence with a laugh. 

“ If we sit so still, staring at each other, people will 
think that I am mesmerising you,” he said. “ And, by- 
the-way, I believe I could.” 

“ Please don’t try !” she exclaimed, starting from her 
seat and pushing her hair from her forehead with a 
quick nervous gesture peculiar to her. “ I must be 
getting back home now to see after papa’s dinner.” 

“ I will walk up with you,” he said ; “ but you haven’t 
yet told me whether you would like to go back to Eng- 
land, leaving your father comfortably settled here, pro- 
vided for for life, and with all his bills paid.” 

“ Why do you ask me such questions,” she said, “ when 
you know what you suggest is impossible ?” 

Then an inspiration seized Armstrong. In his pocket 
was another advance from his uncle to provide his niece 
Laline with medicines, new clothes, and other neces- 
saries. Wallace directed his steps to the Eue Royale. 

“ Come and look in this jeweller’s shop-window,” he 
said, “ and tell me whether you are fond of trinkets.” 

“Very fond,” she answered, “and I often look in 
here.” 

“ Don’t you want to have some of the pretty things ?” 

“ I should, I dare say, if I had any money. But I 
have never had any jewelry except my dear mother’s 
gold watch and chain. I hope I shall never part with 
that ; but I don’t wear it, because it is a great deal out 
of repair, and I can’t afford to have it put right.” 

“ Come inside and look at the things,” he said. “ Oh, 
it’s all right,” he added, seeing that she hesitated ; “ I 
have to buy something for myself!” 

Once within the jeweller’s shop, Wallace approached 
the attendant and held towards him Laline’s hand. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


45 


“ I want a very pretty ring for this young lady,” he 
said in French. “ Take off your glove, Laline.” 

In her astonishment she did not notice that, for the 
first time, he called her by her name without any prefix. 
Before she could do more than stammer a few words of 
inquiry, Wallace had deftly unbuttoned her glove and 
drawn it off, and the smiling attendant was showing her 
a trayful of rings. 

“ Here is one suitable to mademoiselle,” the man sug- 
gested, showing her two tiny pearl hearts intertwined 
with a true-lover’s knot. 

“They are all too large!” Wallace complained. “Ho 
— I can’t wait for one to be altered. Have you nothing 
smaller ?” 

A turquoise heart, surrounded by very small diamonds, 
proved so small that, once it was thrust upon the girl’s 
finger, it could hardly be withdrawn. Wallace beat the 
price down to a hundred francs, and paid the money over 
the counter before Laline could do more than gasp an 
astonished protest. 

“How that you are formally engaged to me,” he 
said, “ I may as well order the wedding-ring, too.” 

This he proceeded to do, and, having at length dis- 
covered one of suitable smallness, he slipped the little 
parcel into his pocket, after paying for it, and left the 
shop, drawing Laline’s arm through his in an authorita- 
tive manner as he did so. 

“We will fetch your father,” he said, “and we will 
all dine in the town together to celebrate our engage- 
ment.” 

“ But, Mr. Armstrong,” gasped Laline, “ you must be 
in fun ! Do you know that I am only sixteen ?” 

“ Well, plenty of your friends over here get married 
at sixteen,” he returned, “ and my own mother was 
married before her seventeenth birthday 1” 


46 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


“ But I don’t want to marry you !” 

“ Not to go to England, to live in a big, beautiful house 
under my care and that of my old uncle, one of the 
worthiest and kindest old gentlemen alive, who is simply 
longing to welcome you as his daughter, and writes to 
me about you nearly every day ?” 

“ Why, what can you mean ?” she was beginning, when 
he drew from his pocket the letter from his uncle which 
he had received that morning, and, carefully folding down 
one portion, held it before her eyes. 

The lines which the girl read ran thus : — 

“ Give my love to Laline, and tell her how much I look 
forward to welcoming her in my house. If she is like 
your description, she must indeed be a sweet and 
womanly young creature. Be sure to buy her all 
that she requires. I want my niece to enter her new 
home in the style that befits a lady of gentle birth and 
careful training.” 

“ I can’t understand it !” exclaimed Laline, bewildered. 
“ You never told me that you had been writing about me 
to your uncle. And what does he mean by calling me 
his niece ?” 

“ I told him I hoped to marry you very shortly.” 

“ But you never even asked me !” 

“You are too young to know your own mind, so it 
had to be made up for you,” he said, laughing. “ Now 
listen, Laline dear. As soon as I saw you it went to my 
heart to think that you were wasting your youth and 
beauty and refinement among such coarse and sordid 
surroundings. An atmosphere of unpaid bills and greasy 
cards and cognac was not suited for so fresh and sweet 
a flower. I know your father thoroughly well. I won’t 
talk about him lest I should hurt your feelings. But he 
is not the man to be entrusted with the care of a girl 
like you j and, had your dear mother lived to see you 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


47 


degraded into a half-starved kitchen drudge, friendless 
and neglected ” 

“ Don’t — ah, don’t !” cried Laline, passionately. “ I 
can’t bear it !” 

By that outburst he understood how keenly the girl 
felt her position, and how well-timed had been his allu- 
sion to her lost mother. At once he followed up his 
advantage. 

“ You want a home, my dear little girl,” he continued, 
drawing her hand through his arm and patting it affec- 
tionately. “ This is not the place for you, and these are 
not the surroundings you ought to have In my home 
you will enjoy what should be your position by right — 
that of an English lady! You will be petted and loved 
and cared for, you will have your own rooms and your 
own furniture, pocket-money to spend on pretty frocks 
and little presents for your friends, plenty of books to 
read, ample leisure and servants to wait upon you. My 
uncle, Alexander Wallace, is one of the richest bankers 
in London, and I am his favourite nephew and heir. 
You will have just what money you want now ; and, 
later on, you will be an extremely rich woman, able to 
buy diamonds and horses and carriages and everything 
that you wish for in the world.” 

She turned her wondering eyes upon him. 

“ And what makes you offer me all these things ?” she 
asked, simply. 

“ Because I love you,” was the answer on the tip of his 
tongue ; and he was angry with both her and himself 
because he could not speak it. Something in her absolute 
innocence and candour disarmed him. Almost for one 
moment he wished that he could tell her the whole truth 
in words of brutal frankness — “ Because I am a ruined 
and dishonoured good-for-nothing, and my only hope of 
help consists in the immediate production of a wife at 


48 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


my rich uncle’s house ! I have chosen you because you 
are very pretty, and too young and ignorant of the 
world to disbelieve my lying statements. Also because 
you have a mercenary scamp of a father, who has sold 
you to me for my wife for a consideration ! I don’t pre- 
tend to love you ; much of your society would bore me 
to death. But I don’t intend to have much of your 
society; and you are just the good, sweet-faced, refined 
sort of a little girl to get round my uncle, and coax 
money out of him for my extravagances !” 

This is what Wallace Armstrong longed for one brief 
moment to say. He felt that he should despise himself 
less than if he were successful in deceiving her. But he 
was not in the habit of following good impulses when 
they stood in the way of his interests ; and he slipped 
again into lying, and cleverly affecting a kindly and 
tender interest in the girl, until Hue Planche was 
reached and they entered the street together. 

Then suddenly Laline, who had been listening to him 
in silence, stopped. She had something she wished to 
say to him before she entered the house. Her tones 
were low and earnest, and her eyes were grave. 

“ It is all very strange and wonderful,” she said, “ that 
you, who have known me so short a time, and your uncle, 
who has never seen me, should love me and want me to 
be with you always. I don’t deserve it, and I don’t 
understand it ! There must be so many beautiful girls 
who would be much more suitable to you than I can be. 
And — I can’t understand why, and it seems dreadfully 
ungrateful — but all the time you are talking I seem to 
hear whispered in my ear, ‘ Don’t listen ; he does not 
mean what he says !’ And though you are so kind, and 
though I long to go back to England, and cannot bear 
the life here, I — I am afraid of you 1” 

Although she half whispered the last words, there 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


49 


was no mistaking the startled look in her eyes. At that 
moment Armstrong positively disliked her, although her 
slight opposition only had the effect of making him more 
than ever determined to carry through his project. 

What business had this ignorant child with intuitions 
warning her against him? Was it possible that under 
her demure and child-like exterior there lurked a spirit 
which would not easily be swayed and mastered by his 
own ? Some hint of this flashed upon him as he watched 
her and listened to her faltering confession. 

“You need never be afraid of me,” he said, gently. 
“ My ways are unpolished, I know. I have been knock- 
ing about in Australia for nearly five years, roughing 
it in the Bush and among miners. I wanted to see 
something of the world before marrying and settling 
down in England. But you shall cure my uncouth 
ways, and correct all my other defects, too, my dear 
Laline !” 

Once in the house, and alone with Captain Garth in 
his den, Wallace’s tone changed. 

“ For Heaven’s sake give me a drop of brandy to wash 
out of my mouth the taste of all the lies I’ve been tell- 
ing !” he cried, irritably. “ It’s my opinion, Garth, that 
little bread-and-butter prig of yours will be dear at the 
price !” 

“ She’s a good child, and won’t give you any trouble,” 
Laline’s father assured him, soothingly. “Have you 
broached the subject of the marriage to her yet ?” 

“Your fingers are itching to touch the two ‘quid’ a 
week, I see !” sneered Armstrong, as he tossed off a glass 
of neat cognac. “ Oh, it’s safe enough ! She’s delighted 
at the idea, which is more than I am. However, it’s got 
to be gone through with. Unluckily, I’ve promised to 
take her and you to dine with me in the town this 
evening. Can’t we put her off?” 
c d 5 


50 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


Garth shook his head dubiously. 

“ Better not,” he said. “ If she’s left alone, she’ll get 
thinking — she’s a great one for thinking and dreaming 
and fancying. Now that the thing’s settled, she had 
better not be left alone this evening.” 

“As you like. But, mind, I’ve had enough of nursery 
courtship ; and she mustn’t expect to see much of me 
during the next few days. On the third, as soon as the 
ceremony is over, we will cross by the midday boat ; and 
Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Armstrong will proceed to Lon- 
don and dine on fat veal, au Fils Frodiguel It will be 
time enough to tell Laline the day when her frocks are 
ready.” 

“ Here’s to your happy married life !” observed Garth, 
pouring himself out some brandy. “I hope you’ll be 
kind to her, Armstrong, when I am not by to look after 
her !” 

Up-stairs in her own room, Laline was kneeling before 
her little dressing-table of painted deal, gazing earnestly 
at her dead mother’s portrait. 

“ Mother,” she murmured, with tears in her eyes, “ if 
you could only speak to me and advise me ! Is it your 
voice which seems to tell me not to listen to Mr. Arm- 
strong? And yet he seems so kind, and he is going to 
be so good and generous to papa ! Such a fairy prince 
to such a poor little penniless Cinderella ! How good it 
is of him to be so sorry for me — to sympathise with me 
so deeply about losing you, and to understand how much 
it would hurt you to know just how things have been 
since you left me ! I remember how you once said to 
me, while I sat reading at your feet and you smoothed my 
hair, £ I hope and pray that my little girl may some day 
marry a good man, who will love her for herself, as 
a woman should be loved !’ I have not remembered that 
speech until to-day. I wanted to wait for years before I 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


51 


thought of love and marriage for myself. There is no 
one to help me and advise me. Oh, mother, if you 
could only come back for one moment and tell me what 
to do!” 

But the wills of two unscrupulous men were warring 
against the vague intuitions of an inexperienced girl ; 
and every day the net was drawn more closely about 
Laline’s feet, until the dawn of the thirtieth of August, 
her wedding-morning. 


CHAPTER VI. 

“ Happy is the bride the sun shines on !” 

Laline had heard the words somewhere, and remem- 
bered them as she woke very early on the thirtieth of 
August and saw the rain pouring in a steady flood upon 
the sun-dried earth. 

She stood looking out on the mean little back street 
of St. Denis, commanded by her bedroom window. 
What outlook would there be from the windows of her 
new home? she wondered. Old Mr. Wallace’s house 
was vast and dreary, situated over his banking-establish- 
ment in the Strand, London ; from his nephew’s brief 
description it was a paradise of luxury and comfort. 
Laline was all agog with excitement. She did not want 
to marry Wallace Armstrong; she was fascinated by 
and yet afraid of him. But she had become so con- 
vinced of his disinterested goodness to her, and she was 
so troubled by her father’s debts and difficulties, that it 
seemed wicked to refuse his offer. And yet she had not 
said “ Yes her “ Yes” had been taken for granted, her 
father had effusively blessed her as the means of deliver- 
ing him from his embarrassments, and Benoite and her 


52 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


few acquaintances could hardly shower enough congrat- 
ulations upon her for her unique good fortune, which 
clearly astonished them. 

“ So rich a man, so handsome, so distinguished-looking, 
the heir to a millionaire, and nothing would content him 
but marrying lap'tite Gart l It was certainly very won- 
derful , although she had greatly improved in appear- 
ance since she had taken to long frocks and put her hair 
up.” 

Such were among the neighbours’ comments; and 
every one seemed to envy Laline’s good fortune. And 
yet this little beggar-maid could not subdue a secret fear 
of her King Cophetua ; and as she stood now, looking 
very fair and saint-like in her long, white gown, with 
her bright hair floating about her shoulders, and the 
wistful look of her hazel eyes, a little quiver of dread 
passed over her as she thought of that unknown future 
to which the flying minutes were leading her. 

Her wedding-dress, which was also to be her travel- 
ling-costume, lay on the bed, a plain blue serge of per- 
fect fit and cut, in which she looked very tall and slim, a 
neat little blue straw hat, and a tweed travelling-cape. 
Laline had very little more real notion of love or of 
the responsibilities of a wife than the little Bertins next 
door; but her heart beat fast as she finished dressing 
and heard her future husband’s voice as he entered the 
hall below. 

“ Don’t I look grown-up ?” she asked, as she ran down- 
stairs to greet him. 

Wallace was in a bad temper that morning, having sat 
up until four o’clock losing money at cards. He kissed 
Laline’s cheek without much effusion. 

“ I hope you are going to do your hair up,” he ob- 
served. “You look about twelve with all that about 
your shoulders !” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


53 


“I haven’t finished dressing it. It’s all got to be 
coiled and twisted and pinned away. But I thought you 
would like to see me in my new gown.” 

“ Well, don’t waste time dressing! We have to be at 
the Consul’s at ten ; and the boat leaves at ten minutes 
past two o’clock. It’s a beastly morning ; I’ve got wet 
through coming over from the hotel!” 

An hour later the three set forth in a closed fiacre , 
accompanied by an elderly sporting friend of Captain 
Garth, to whom the latter owed a good deal of money, 
and who went ostensibly as a witness, but in reality to 
make sure that Miss Garth’s marriage with Alexander 
Wallace’s nephew was not a creation of his friend and 
debtor’s facile brain. 

It was by no means a festive party. The bridegroom 
was morose and sullen, and did not once glance at the 
poor little bride, who sat in silence facing him, with a 
startled look in her eyes. Captain Garth was restless 
and voluble, striving, by his forced cheerfulness, to im- 
part something like suitable brightness to the occasion ; 
his friend Mr. Mitcham endeavoured to pay compliments 
to Laline, who received his well-meant efforts with a 
dreamy wonder that was not encouraging; the cab 
splashed through the muddy streets, the rain beat upon 
the windows, and at every yard traversed Laline’s 
spirits sank to a low ebb, and her mind became more 
and more overshadowed by dismal forebodings of the 
future in store for her. 

The Consul, a grey-haired fussy man, with a preoccu- 
pied manner, made short work of the ceremony ; and to 
Laline, whose ideas of weddings were chiefly gained 
from those she had witnessed in the village church in 
Westmoreland, there was something bald and unmean- 
ing in the total absence of any religious ceremony, some- 
thing that savoured of a bargain made across a counter, 

5 * 


54 


IIER FAIRY PRINCE. 


and not of a holy sacrament to be honoured throughout 
a lifetime. 

A few words spoken by an elderly gentleman in ordi- 
nary attire in the presence of his secretary, his clerk, 
Garth, Armstrong, Mitcham, and Laline, in a bare-look- 
ing office, a few statements made by a man and a woman, 
a few signatures and the payment of certain fees, and 
Laline Garth had become Laline Armstrong, wife of the 
tall, frowning young man who stood facing her with an 
aching head which had not yet recovered from the 
gambling and brandy-drinking of the preceding even- 
ing. 

It was all startling, shocking, and painful to Laline. 
To the last they had not told her that hers was to be 
solely a civil marriage ; to the last she had hoped that 
a clergyman might bless her in a holier name before she 
started on her new life. She was half a child still, but 
woman enough to feel deeply the inadequacy of such a 
ceremony as had just taken place to satisfy the require- 
ments of her mind. 

Almost as soon as the little party left the Consular 
residence the bridegroom announced his intention of 
going to his hotel, “to put his things together,” a prop- 
osition which his father-in-law urgently combated. 

“ It isn’t half-past ten yet !” growled Armstrong. 
“ That Consul-fellow fixed the ceremony so infernally 
early ! What in the world can one do with oneself in the 
Eue Planche on a pouring wet day like this ?” 

“ There are plenty of little things to talk over,” said 
Garth, slipping his arm through that of his son-in-law. 
“We have to drink success to your married life too,” he 
added, insinuatingly. 

“ In that filthy brandy of yours ? There’s one good 
thing about going back to England, one can get some- 
thing fit to drink there 1” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


55 


With such had grace Armstrong agreed to accompany 
his bride and her father home. Captain Garth was fully 
determined to keep Wallace securely under his eye until 
he saw the newly-married pair safely on board the boat 
bound for England. He had had some experience of the 
young man’s moods, and knew that he was quite capable 
of getting extremely intoxicated in the town out of mere 
bravado, and in that condition presenting himself at the 
boat, or even, at the worst, of forgetting that appoint- 
ment altogether. 

“ Poor little girl ! She’s caught a Tartar !” was 
Mitcham’s mental comment, as he took leave of the 
bridal party, who, in another fiacre , splashed their way 
back to the High Town. 

Here the little bride was dismissed to her room, to 
complete her packing. But, most unluckily for the 
plans of Messrs. Armstrong and Garth, it so chanced 
that almost as soon as Laline arrived up-stairs, and be- 
fore she had even removed her hat, she remembered that 
she had left her keys in the salle-a-manger below, and 
forthwith she descended in search of them. 

Hell the cat and her kitten were playing on the floor 
of the salle , and the little bride slipped on her knees be- 
side them to bid them an affectionate and tearful fare- 
well. Hell’s kitten had an untidy habit of dragging any 
plaything it could find from one room to another about 
the house ; as she caressed it, Laline remembered that 
her three keys on a little piece of string were among the 
kitten’s favourite toys, which might account for the fact 
that they were at this present moment nowhere to be 
found. 

On consulting Benoite, the latter declared that she 
had seen the “ le fitit chat ” amusing itself with some keys 
on the floor of the salon that morning ; but, as she never 
meddled with anything of Monsieur’s, she had not res- 


56 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


cued them. Clearly the salon was the place to search 
for the missing keys, and with that idea Laline turned 
the handle of her father’s den. 

The two men were sitting by Garth’s desk with their 
heads bent over a paper ; close at hand stood the cognac, 
a syphon, and two well-filled glasses. They seemed ab- 
sorbed in the contents of the paper before them, and did 
not hear Laline’s timid turning of the handle of the 
door. Before, however, she had opened it sufficiently 
wide to enable her to enter, some words, loudly spoken 
in her bridegroom’s voice, arrested her attention, and 
made her suddenly stop as though turned to stone. 

“ You’ve only got to alter the date of the certificate 
from the thirtieth of August to the thirtieth of July, and 
the thing is done. I wrote to my uncle that I was mar- 
ried and that my wife was starving just twenty-four 
days ago. I didn’t say how long I’d been married ; and, 
as I landed at Marseilles in the middle of July on my 
way to Paris, I should have had plenty of time to get on 
here and through the ceremony by the thirtieth. Of 
course, Laline doesn’t look as if she were starving, though 
I think you’ve kept her pretty short in the matter of 
food. But, if she’s only sea-sick, she may look woe- 
begone enough for the character!” 

“Your difficulty will be,” said Garth, “to persuade 
her to back you up in those few little necessary lies. For 
one thing, I have stated her age as seventeen; for 
another, she must be made to understand that she’s been 
married a month, and has been starving in Boulogne for 
some days. But your toughest job will be to induce her 
to state that she’s the orphan daughter of a clergyman, 
and that she met you coming home from Australia. It’s 
almost a pity to have left all these very important details 
to the last moment.” 

“ It’s all the fault of that humbugging training of 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


57 


hers,” growled Armstrong. “But I’m not going to let 
any whimpering school-girl spoil my prospects. Laline’s 
my wife, and she’s got to obey me. I shall impress upon 
her that my uncle, who is very particular, would never 
forgive me for marrying the daughter of such a man as 
you, ex-keeper of a gambling-club, where I got fleeced 
and ruined five years ago, — a man who daren’t show his 
face in England ; and I shall assure her that I invented 
this story of a dead parson-father in order to spare her 
natural feelings.” 

“ Stop a bit !” exclaimed Garth, whose flesh-tints had 
deepened from crimson to purple while Armstrong was 
speaking. “ I draw the line at that. It’s bad enough 
to be deprived of my daughter’s companionship ; but I 
won’t have her mind poisoned against me ; understand 
that ! You can tell her that I am connected with the 
turf, as I suggested before, and that your uncle has a 
Puritanical horror of horse-racing. But I won’t have 
my memory blackened in the mind of the only kith-and- 
kin I have in the world !” 

“ I shall arrange it as I said !” said Armstrong obsti- 
nately, while he helped himself to more brandy. “ You’ve 
sold me your daughter for a hundred a year, to be after- 
wards raised on two separate occasions. You wanted 
money, and so did I. Both of us were stone-broke. I 
wrote to my uncle, pretending I had a starving wife ; he 
took me at my word, and promised to forgive me and pro- 
vide for me if I would produce her. It was necessary to 
find a wife immediately, and desirable that she should be 
too young or too silly to ask questions. I settled on your 
daughter. The bargain was struck, and she passed from 
your keeping to mine, having filled her very proper mis- 
sion of providing us both with money. But, now that 
she is mine, and I have saddled myself with a lanky, 
half-fledged school-girl, you have no more part in her, 


58 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


and I shall speak to her of you or of anybody else in just 
what terms I choose !” 

“My daughter is my daughter until she leaves my 
roof, at least!” cried Garth, his patience suddenly de- 
serting him. “I’m sick of your bullying, blustering, 
hectoring ways ! The settlement as to my future in- 
come is all signed and sealed and witnessed, and what is 
to prevent me from informing Laline of your true char- 
acter before she leaves this house? What authority 
would you exercise over her if I told her your record ? 
A gambler, a drunkard, a bully, and a forger, who has only 
escaped a felon’s cell by the leniency of an uncle, who 
shipped him off to Australia in order to get rid of him !” 

Captain Garth rose while he spoke, and made as 
though he were approaching the door, when, suddenly, 
Armstrong sprang from his seat with a smothered oath, 
and caught him roughly by the shoulder. Just for one 
moment Laline, gazing with distended eyes through the 
crack of the door, saw them, the faces of both excited 
and angry — Garth’s with a red rage of indignation, and 
Armstrong’s with a white cruelty which was infinitely 
more dangerous. Then, as the two men struggled, the 
sound of scuffling commenced, drowning Laline’s flying 
footsteps, and enabling her to gain the staircase and her 
own apartment unseen and unheard. 

One only idea filled her mind — to escape at that in- 
stant from both these men ; and the strange lucidity of 
thought which comes to some emotional natures at mo- 
ments of high tension seemed suddenly to make clear to 
her ways and means. 

It was only a few minutes past eleven ; she had heard 
the church-clocks chime the hour while she listened at the 
salon door. The Folkestone boat did not leave until ten 
minutes past two ; if Armstrong and her father had their 
luncheon served to them at twelve, they would not think 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


59 


of her until past one. She would tell Benoite that she 
was going to call upon some friends before leaving Bou- 
logne, and that she would be back in time for the boat ; 
she would lock her bedroom-door and throw away the 
key in order to still further delay pursuit. But then — 
where was she to go ? 

All her thoughts and wishes pointed to England. And 
yet where in her native country was she to make her 
home until she could find means to earn her own living, 
as she had so long desired to ? 

Her uncle, the clergyman in Sussex, had held no com- 
munication with his sister since her marriage with Ran- 
dolph Garth, and only as a last resource could Laline 
entertain the idea of seeking shelter under his roof. 
But there was a much-loved school-friend of the late 
Mrs. Garth, a widow named Melville, whose constant 
and affectionate letters had been much looked forward 
to by the little household in the Westmoreland village. 
Her messages to her old friend’s little daughter had been 
of the kindest description. She kept a girls’-shcool in 
Norwood, and Laline remembered her address ; but since 
her arrival in Boulogne she had had no communication 
with Mrs. Melville, who, Laline realised, would be shocked 
by the Bohemian mode of life in the Rue Planche. 

Laline had not seen this lady since she was a very 
little child ; but she remembered her as kind, and be- 
lieved that, for her dead mother’s sake, Mrs. Melville 
might be induced to help her, and to Mrs. Melville’s pro- 
tection Laline resolved to fly. 

There was no time to be lost indeed. The girl could 
hear men’s voices in angry discussion below. England 
must be reached as speedily as possible ; and yet to 
travel by the Folkestone boat was clearly out of the 
question. The Calais route was shorter, if Laline could 
only get to Calais; and by that journey she would 


60 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


arrive in London more than hour before her pursuers, 
should they even guess that she had escaped thither. 

Providentially, she recalled the fact that the train 
from Paris to Calais stopped at Boulogne for a few 
minutes before proceeding on its journey at a quarter to 
twelve o’clock. Laline’s mind was at once made up ; 
and in less time than it takes to tell it she had seized her 
cloak and gloves, locked her bedroom-door, slipped the 
key in her pocket, and astonished Benoite by darting 
into the kitchen and whispering a hurried message in 
her ear before leaving the house by the way into the 
Rue St. Denis. 

Her entire worldly wealth consisted of one franc and 
fifty centimes ; but her father’s chronic impecuniosity 
had taught Laline the method by which the poor and 
improvident raise money, and, with a beating heart and 
a hot flush on her cheek, Laline stopped on her way to 
the station to change the two rings which Armstrong 
had given her, the turquoise and diamond engagement- 
ring, the hated wedding-ring, together with her much- 
loved mother’s watch and chain, for money wherewith 
to buy her freedom. 

For it seemed to Laline that she would be free of the 
horrible, loveless bargain which her marriage had been 
could she but tear from her finger the gold circlet which 
Wallace Armstrong had an hour ago placed there, could 
she but put the sea between herself and him, and, losing 
herself in the vastness of London, change her name and 
live out her life away from him and his evil influence. 

Her heart was full of the most passionate indignation 
against both him and her father ; of the latter, indeed, 
she hardly dared to think, so deeply did she resent his 
treatment of her ; but of Armstrong she thought with a 
growing fear and horror, which dwelt upon the brutality 
of his speeches and the cruelty of his expression, until 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


61 


he seemed to her to be scarcely human. Rather death 
than a return to the care of either of those men ! Ter- 
ror lent wings to her feet, until, breathless, panting, but 
with a great sigh of relief, she jumped into the already 
moving train for Calais. 

Fortune favoured the runaway. The passage was 
smooth enough under a gray, lowering sky, and Laline’s 
heart leaped within her at sight of the white cliffs of 
her native land in the afternoon. Before six o’clock on 
that eventful day the Dover train steamed into Charing- 
Cross Station, and L aline Armstrong stepped out upon 
the platform, a slim, girlish figure, alone and friendless in 
the great city of London. 


CHAPTER VII. 

On a winter afternoon in London, rather more than 
four years after Laline’s flight from Boulogne, a beauti- 
ful young woman, stood in the ground-floor sitting-room 
of a London lodging-house, poring over the advertise- 
ments headed “ Wanted” in a daily paper. 

To the owner of the house, who was a relative of her 
old friend Mrs. Melville, of Norwood, this young lady 
was known as Miss Lina Grahame ; but the reader has 
already made her acquaintance as Laline Garth, who, on 
a certain rainy morning in Boulogne, became the bride 
of Wallace Armstrong. 

For four years Laline had earned her living in the 
girls’-school kept by her mother’s old schoolfellow — four 
well-occupied uneventful years, spent in the schoolroom, 
the dormitory, the Crystal Palace, and walks in the 
neighbourhood of Norwood, looking after the younger 
pupils, teaching French to the elder ones, preparing and 

6 


62 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


correcting lessons and studying for examinations, with 
the duties of every hour in the day well-defined and 
clear, a healthy but monotonous life of gray routine and 
unchangeable discipline. 

And now, at the age of forty-two, Mrs. Melville, La- 
line’s employer and friend, had been carried off to Can- 
ada by a cousin and old sweetheart, who, finding him- 
self at the age of forty-five a well-to-do widower, with 
four young children, had bethought him of that eminent 
instructress of youth, his widowed cousin, and in a very 
practical letter had proposed to come over to England, 
marry her, and take her back with him to Canada to 
look after his household and his children. 

Such an offer, in the eyes of a buxom business-like 
woman of forty-two, was too advantageous to be refused. 
Mrs. Melville thought so ; and, after speedily disposing 
of her house and selling the scholastic good-will and name 
to her senior teacher, she married her cousin with the 
utmost composure, and dutifully accompanied him to 
his Canadian home in order to undertake the mental and 
moral education of her four step-children. 

To her junior governess, Miss Lina Grahame, Mrs. 
Melville gave on parting a travelling-clock, an ivory- 
bound prayer-book, and some excellent advice. 

“ I have only one fault to find with you, my dear,” 
she had said, kindly — “ you are too pretty. It grew to 
be quite awkward sending away the foreign masters be- 
cause they made themselves silly about you, and the 
pupils noticed it. No — I don’t tell you to cut your hair 
off or to wear blue spectacles ; but I do say that I am 
not surprised that Miss Finch doesn’t want to keep you 
on with the school, although you have such nice ways 
with the children and such a good French accent. I have 
myself been a very successful teacher — but then I have 
always been plain. Now, although it goes against the 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


63 


grain to say it, for a girl with your appearance I sup- 
pose that the most desirable profession is marriage.” 

Laline had suddenly flushed at Mrs. Melville’s words, 
and then burst into a peal of laughter. 

“ Mow, Mrs. Melville,” she had cried, “ that comes very 
oddly from you, who are just marrying for the second 
time ! And I have often told you that it is useless to 
talk like that to me, as I shall never marry.” 

This parting conversation recurred to Laline as she 
turned over the advertisement-pages of the papers on 
this wintry afternoon in search of a suitable scholastic 
engagement. 

“I wonder,” she reflected, “that all those years I 
never let out that I was really married in talking to 
Mrs. Melville. I often felt strongly tempted to tell her, 
but that it seemed impossible that just a visit to a Con- 
sul’s house, and some mumbled words, and a ring which 
I never wore, can mean a tie for life. It is not as if it 
had been in a church, and I had gone through a proper 
religious ceremony, with some kindly-faced clergyman 
to utter the beautiful words I know. I should have 
held that to be binding ; but as to this, it all seems now 
like an incident in a half-forgotten dream. And yet I 
suppose that, if Wallace Armstrong is not dead, I really 
am his wife, and shall be as long as he and I both live. 
Yet if he saw me now he would not know me, and I 
think I should hardly recognise him. It seems absurd. 
Luckily I have never been the least little bit in love, 
and do not mean to be, except in day-dreams and with 
wholly imaginary persons. I never felt anything, I 
know, when Monsieur Marchand and Herr Pfeiffer got 
sentimental about me. I suppose they behaved like that 
just because I was what Mrs. Melville called pretty. 
She thinks my looks will stand in my way ; she would 
have been amused at my impudence in answering 


64 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


yesterday this advertisement, which I see is inserted 
again to-day.” 

And, with her soft eyes sparkling with fun, Laline 
read over the somewhat remarkable insertion to which 
she had replied. 

“ Wanted, as companion and amanuensis to a lady, a 
well-educated young girl, refined and beautiful, of high 
character and gentle birth. Apply by letter, enclosing 
photograph, to Occult, Box 72,631, advertisement-office, 
Daily Post” 

“ Occult, whoever she may be, must be rather mad,” 
Laline decided. “But I haven’t a doubt that she will 
get dozens of answers. I wonder what she is like? 
There is an originality about the advertisement which 
is fascinating ; and to be a companion and amanuensis 
sounds much nicer and more vague than to be teacher 
in a school.” 

At that identical moment the repeated double-knock 
of a telegraph-boy resounded through the hall. Then 
came a tap at the door of Laline’s sitting-room, and a 
slatternly little servant entered and presented a telegram 
addressed to “ Miss Grahame.” 

The message ran thus : — 

“Be Occult’s advertisement. Come at once to 21, 
Queen Mary Crescent, Kensington. Photograph and 
letter approved.” 

It was with excitement not unmingled with a curious 
sense of trepidation that Laline got out of a hansom 
cab, the driver of which had had considerable trouble in 
discovering the narrow cul-de-sac turning which led to 
St. Mary’s Crescent — a row of old-fashioned houses, 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


65 


mellowed by age and smoke to a deep crimson colour. 
Near them waved the tall trees of Kensington Gardens, 
and before their narrow green-painted doors two steps 
led to a walk three feet wide and a stone-paved yard, 
over which the wheels of Laline’s cab clattered noisily, 
awakening the protests of more than one pet-dog from 
the quiet houses into which the noise from the busy 
thoroughfare of the High Street came only as a distant 
and soothing murmur. 

As Laline laid her hand on the knocker of number 
seven, she became suddenly embarrassed as to the name 
of its occupant. Could she ask for Miss or Mrs. Occult ? 

u I have come in answer to a telegram about an ad- 
vertisement,” she finally announced, as the door was 
opened by a neatly-dressed parlour-maid, and Laline 
found herself in a very small square hall, dimly lighted 
by an oil-lamp, and furnished with tapestry-hangings 
and two oak settles of old-fashioned make. 

The servant oj)ened the door of a room to the right 
of the entrance, and asked the visitor to step inside. 
Almost at the same moment a young lady darted down 
the staircase into the hall, so swiftly and suddenly as to 
suggest the idea that she had been on the watch for the 
visitor, and joined Laline at the door of the room into 
which she was being shown. 

“It is my aunt who has sent for you,” tne new-comer 
whispered confidentially to Laline, after carefully closing 
the door behind her ; “ and I do hope she will engage 
you ! The moment I saw your face at the door I took 
such a fancy to you !” 

The speaker was a girl of apparently Laline’s own 
age, well developed, and of medium height, with curi- 
ously lithe feline movements. Her dress, of yellow- 
green serge, was loosely draped about her and caught 
here and there by silver buckles, her skin was white as 
e 6* 


66 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


paper and framed in an untidy halo of silky yellow-red 
hair. Regular features, oddly-gleaming green-gray eyes 
under pale-yellow lashes, and narrow curved red lips 
completed an ensemble which to Laline was at once re- 
pellent and attractive. 

“ If this was the niece, what would the aunt be ?” she 
asked herself, fascinated by the strange brightness of the 
girl’s eyes. But, as Laline gazed, her new acquaintance 
suddenly lowered her white eyelids, and the trick struck 
the other as affected and insincere. 

The same cat-like quality which characterised her 
movements was shown also in her voice, which was 
marked by a purring and caressing intonation. 

“ Bo you know who my aunt is ?” she asked. 

And then, as Laline shook her head, the red-haired 
girl enunciated her aunt’s name with much impressive- 
ness. 

“ She is Mrs. Yandeleur — Mrs. Sibyl Yandeleur.” 

The name meant nothing to Laline, but she saw that 
the red-haired girl expected her to be struck by it, and 
she hastened to explain her unmoved attitude. 

“ I know nothing of London celebrities,” she said ; “ I 
have not lived in London since I was a child.” 

“ Oh, that accounts for your not having heard of her !” 
said the other, evidently disappointed. “My aunt is 
extremely well known; and I should have thought 
that, to any one who reads the papers ” 

“But I don’t read the papers!” put in Laline. “I 
have never had time.” 

The other girl drew back her head, and appeared to 
be studying her. 

“How delightful!” she murmured, sympathetically. 
“I should like to be like that — it leaves so many things 
to be found out. You have lived all your life at Nor- 
wood, haven’t you ?” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


67 


The question was asked with such point-blank direct- 
ness, but, at the same time, with such an appearance of 
spontaneous simplicity, that Laline was a little taken 
aback. With the strange intuition which she had re- 
tained from her childish days, she already distrusted the 
apparent friendliness of this picturesque stranger, and 
she accordingly framed her answer in vague and re- 
served tones. 

“ I have lived for a part of my life at Norwood,” she 
answered. 

“ At a girls’-school ? That must be a dull life, but nice 
and restful for the nerves. Have you any nerves ? This 
house is the worst possible place for you if you have.” 

The last words were uttered in a very low voice, after 
a quick glance round the room. 

“ I don’t think I am particularly nervous,” Laline 
replied. 

“ But you look nervous,” remarked the red-haired girl. 
“Those delicate faces, with pale-pink skins and dark 
eyes and auburn hair, are always the nervous ones. Now 
I am colourless and lymphatic, so this house doesn’t hurt 
me !” 

“And why is it likely to hurt me ?” inquired Laline, 
calmly. 

“ Hush — don’t talk so loudly ! I liked your face so 
much that I thought I ought to speak to you just to put 
you on your guard !” 

She glanced round her again, and, drawing nearer to 
Laline, breathed rather than spoke in her ear — 

“ Are you afraid of ghosts ?” 

Before Laline could answer, a thin but silvery voice 
broke upon the silence, and caused the red-haired girl to 
start guiltily from her companion’s side. 

“ Go to your room, Clare — I wish to speak to Miss 
Grahame alone I” 


68 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


Without a word Clare stole away, leaving Laline tete- 
a-tete with a lady whom she rightly judged to be “Oc- 
cult,” otherwise Mrs. Sibyl Yandeleur. 

Standing before the picturesque background of dark- 
red plush curtains which draped the folding-doors through 
which she had entered, Mrs. Yandeleur appeared to La- 
line one of the most picturesque figures she had ever 
seen. Rather under the medium height, and of extreme 
thinness and fragility, she looked more like a spirit than 
a woman, an effect heightened by her powdered hair, 
dressed loosely and high upon her head, her piercing, 
dark eyes, ivory-white skin, and the soft silvery-gray 
draperies swathed round her slender form. In her thin 
hand she held a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, the handle 
of which was thickly encrusted with turquoise and gar- 
nets in an old-fashioned gold setting, and through these 
she peered in a bird-like manner at Laline, with her 
head poised a little on one side. 

“What is your name,” she asked — “your full name, 
given you at baptism ?” 

The terms of the question rather disconcerted Laline, 
and there was a perceptible hesitation in her voice as 
she replied — 

“ I am called Lina Grahame.” 

“ That is not your real name !” 

“ It is the one by which I am known.” 

“ That means,” said Mrs. Yandeleur, putting down her 
eyeglasses and tapping her thin fingers with them, “ that 
you have reasons for concealing your identity ?” 

“ I had at one time, Mrs. Yandeleur, and 1 have now 
got used to the names of Lina Grahame, to which I 
have some right !” 

“ The surname was a family name ?” 

“Yes!” 

Grahame was indeed the maiden name of Laline’s 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


69 


mother, and the girl was startled and interested by Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s surmise. 

“ I was often called Lina as a child,” she added, quickly, 
to forestall Mrs. Yandeleur’s interrogatories. 

“The mystery concerns a man,” said the little lady 
in gray, peering again at Laline through her gold- 

rimmed glasses. “And yet your face Take off 

your glove — no, the left hand — and let me look at your 
lines 1” 

Laline obeyed. As she did so, with startling distinct- 
ness there flashed back upon her memory a similar scene 
in which she had taken part more than four years ago. 
In her mind’s eye she saw it all again — the hot stirless 
afternoon in mid-August, the sun’s rays shining over a 
long stretch of gleaming sand and peeping under the 
straw hat-brim of a big black-haired Englishman with 
insolent, bright blue eyes. By his side sat a thin over- 
grown girl of sixteen, listening in rapt silence while he 
told her fortune by the lines of her hand, and prophesied 
that all her life through she would be haunted by the 
influence of a stronger will than hers, and that, before 
the age of seventeen, she would marry a man who 
would never cease to dominate her life until death 
should part them. 

Half dreamily, with her thoughts elsewhere, she began 
to listen while Mrs. Yandeleur, in a level, monotonous 
voice, as though speaking words dictated to her rather 
than spontaneous utterances, began to repeat aloud what 
she professed to read in Laline’s hand. 

“ Early in your life,” she murmured, “ you were sub- 
jected to strangely-opposing influences. Your career has 
been unlike that of girls of your age. Let me look at 
your eyes ; the light is bad, and I am nearsighted, but, 
before I see them, I will tell you their colour — it will be 
that of the darkest hazel-nut, a mossy green, with red- 


70 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


brown lights here and there. Do you dream much and 
vividly ?” 

“ Constantly. And by day as well as by night, I am 
ashamed to say!” Laline answered, laughing. “I am 
a born dreamer.” 

“You are just the person I want!” exclaimed Mrs. 
Vandeleur, a touch of restless excitement showing itself 
in her voice and manner. “ My niece Clare cannot dream. 
A dreamer — a day-dreamer — must have a pure white 
soul, must be untouched by the world, and far above all 
monetary considerations. What is your age ? I could 
find out by your hands, but I know that I can believe 
your words.” 

“ I was twenty last August.” 

“ You look younger ; you have not yet lost your child- 
mind. You have never been in love — oh, I know you 
haven’t — you need not tell me !” 

“ I have certainly never been in love with any one 
alive.” 

“ That means that you have had ideals, and have loved 
them in dreams and waking fancies ?” 

“ Sometimes.” 

“ Keep your ideals for your dreams, child, and love 
them there. In real life you will never meet them. 
There is but little ideality in end-of-the-century English- 
men. We read the old fairy-tale of the Briar-Rose 
Princess, and are glad that she awakes at the Prince’s 
kiss. But she was much happier dreaming. In her 
dreams he and she would never grow old, would never 
fall sick, would never tire of loving, would never die : 
autumn winds would never blow down summer leaves, 
or spring flowers wither at the touch of frost. Life is 
full of sadness, full of disillusions ! Only in dreams and 
fancies can true happiness be found !” 

Something in the sadness of Mrs. Yandeleur’s sweet 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


71 


voice brought the tears to Laline’s eyes. This woman, 
with her fairy-like appearance and disconnected talk, 
her pretensions to sibylline magic, her ready intuition, 
quick observation, and random guesses at truths she 
could not know, possessed an undeniable fascination, to 
which older and more experienced brains than Laline’s 
were wont to succumb. The girl felt that she had met 
a friend, and one wholly in sympathy with an especial 
side of her nature ; and Mrs. Yandeleur, for her part, had 
discovered just such a personality as she required, sensi- 
tive, impressionable, yet maidenly, reserved, and proud. 

“You will make your home here with me, of course,” 
she said, patting Laline’s hand. “Bring your things 
here directly ; your room has been waiting for you a 
long time. Fifty pounds a year and all your expenses. 
You won’t find it too much, for I shall want you always 
to be picturesquely dressed ; but come to me when you 
require more, and you shall have it. No — I ask no 
references. Your face and your hand are sufficient 
references for me. I shall study your hand when I 
mean to know more. One thing I have learned from it 
already : in the troubled time before you you will want 
me as a friend — you will come to me for counsel, and I 
will give it.” 


CHAPTEE VIII. 

Laline dined that evening with Clare Cavan, Mrs. 
Vandeleur’s niece. 

“ Aunt Cissy never eats before people,” the latter ex- 
plained. “ She thinks it’s a great pity we have to eat at 
all. She’s a dear sweet thing, and I quite agree with 
her that eating is very mundane ; but we can’t all of us 
live on air. Aunt Cissy tries to, but even she can’t quite 


72 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


succeed. I call her Aunt Cissy when we are alone be 
cause her real name is Cecilia. But since she became 
celebrated she has taken the name of ‘ Sibyl,’ which is 
more suggestive of mystery, you know.” 

There was a veiled sneer in the words which made 
Laline glance quickly across the table at Clare’s face. 
But Miss Cavan was eating her dinner with a placid 
countenance untouched by sarcasm, her light-yellow 
eyelashes veiling her eyes. 

“ I am perfectly beside myself with delight that aunt 
has chosen you !” Clare presently remarked. “ You have 
no idea what a number of answers she had to her adver- 
tisement. That was through putting in the word ‘ beau- 
tiful.’ Such old hags sent their photographs, too, and 
answers and pictures are still pouring in by every post. 
Did Aunt Cecilia tell you anything about the nature of 
your duties ?” 

“No.” 

“ That is just like her ! She is always so vague. Per- 
haps, when you know all about this house, you won’t stay. 
It’s rather uncanny. The only servants aunt can keep 
are an old Scotch cook, who doesn’t know what nerves 
mean, and the maid who opened the door to you. She 
stays because she’s afraid to run away.” 

“Afraid ?” 

“ Yes. Aunt Cecilia is a Devonshire woman, and can 
put a wish upon any one she’s vexed with. She leaves 
the most valuable things about ; but though at one time 
she was always changing her parlour-maids, no one has 
ever dared to steal anything from her private sitting- 
room up-stairs. You’ll understand why when you’ve 
once been inside it.” 

Clare’s white face grew, if possible, a shade whiter as 
she spoke, lowering her voice to a very subdued key. 

“ Are you afraid of your aunt too ?” Laline asked. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


73 


Clare shivered and glanced towards the door. 

“ Horribly !” she replied, in a very low voice. Then 
she gave a little nervous laugh. “ It sounds absurd to 
you, doesn’t it ? But Aunt Cecilia is a wonderful woman I 
I am an orphan, and she was my mother’s younger sis- 
ter. My mother often told me how Cissy used to terrify 
her as a child by prophesying things. Well, she has 
cultivated her powers in that direction until she almost 
forgets she has a body at all; she is all mind and 
spirit and that sort of thing, you know ! Won’t 
you have some more apple-pie? Aunt Cissy’s cook 
makes such capital pastry, it’s a pity to neglect it! 
As I was saying, my aunt, who isn’t forty yet, in spite 
of her powdered hair, went in for spiritualism and all 
that sort of thing quite early. She was the seventh 
child of a Scotchwoman and a Devonshire man, and both 
my grandparents were dreadfully superstitious. Aunt 
Cissy was very pretty, my mother told me, in a sort of 
ethereal way — a figure like yours, I should say, only not 
so tall and a little thinner — you are so charmingly slen- 
der that I feel a great fat thing beside you !” 

“ I think you have a beautiful figure !” said Laline, 
simply. 

“ Oh, it’s very sweet of you ; but there are too many 
curves about me ! I know I must appear very plump and 
earthly in Aunt Cissy’s eyes. Men like curves, I know ; 
but then I don’t care about pleasing men a little bit — 
they simply bore me when they try to make love to me ! 
Do you feel the same about them ?” 

“ I don’t know. Ho man has ever tried to make love 
to me.” 

And then Laline, although she had answered with 
perfect truthfulness, suddenly blushed, remembering 
that she was actually a married woman. Clare noted 
the blush and decided that her new friend was lying. 

7 


D 


74 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“I am so fond of women,” she proceeded, with appa- 
rent enthusiasm. “ Men are all very well in their way 
— I don’t mind talking to them for a few minutes ; but 
for a friend, a companion, a confidant, give me a woman. 
You and I ought to get on splendidly together. We are 
both orphans — at least, I am an orphan — and your 
parents are dead, are they not ?” 

Again Laline flushed deeply. 

In truth she had neither seen nor heard anything of 
her father since that fateful thirtieth of August more 
than four years ago. But she was by no means inclined 
to confide in Miss Cavan, whom she admired but instinc- 
tively mistrusted ; and she therefore contented herself 
by stating that her mother was dead, and that she had 
not seen her father for some years. 

“ How sad !” cooed Clare. “Well, to go back to Aunt 
Cissy. When she was five- or six-and-twenty she mar- 
ried Mr. Yandeleur, a distinguished man, a good deal 
older than herself, who held a good government post in 
India. Out there Aunt Cissy got friendly with Buddhist 
priests and jugglers and snake-charmers and all sorts of 
wonderful people, and picked up the most interesting 
things travelling about the country. After some years 
of study at occult subjects she found out that Mr. Van- 
deleur’s soul didn’t soar high enough to reach the rarified 
atmosphere she had herself attained, and that compara- 
tive solitude was essential to her. So she left him 
quite amicably in India and came and settled in Ken- 
sington, to pursue her studies undisturbed. I believe he 
had a liver, and was very fond of eating, and had most 
conservative and orthodox notions. So that altogether 
he must have been a trial to Aunt Cissy.” 

“ And have you lived here with your aunt ever since?” 

“ Oh, no,” returned Clare, opening her glittering 
green eyes ; “ I have only been with Aunt Cissy a few 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


75 


months, since my mother died in Dublin last summer 
and left me in her care. I am not in mourning, because 
Aunt Cissy objects to it. She doesn’t believe in death, 
you know ! That is one of her notions. She thinks 
that dead people are all about us in the air, and that, if 
we keep our spirits sufficiently clear, we are able to see 
and talk to them. It makes my flesh creep even to 
think of it !” 

“ Do you do any work for your aunt ?” asked Laline, 
wondering greatly what the nature of her own duties 
would be. 

“ Eo. I wanted to, but she found me too 1 earthly.’ 
That means, I suppose, that I am not skinny enough to 
please her,” Clare added, rather viciously — “at least,” 
she corrected herself, glancing at Laline’s slim figure, 
“ I don’t exactly mean skinny — I mean spiritual-looking.” 

Laline burst into a hearty laugh. 

“ I don’t in the least mind being called skinny, I assure 
you,” she said, good-humouredly. 

The two girls offered a very marked contrast in ap- 
pearance. Clare Cavan’s startling fairness and pallor, 
her abundant hair, red by day, but converted by arti- 
ficial light into a ripe gold, the voluptuous curves of her 
figure, her aquiline features, almost Egyptian in profile 
from the sharp outlines of the nose and chin and curled 
upper lip, her scarlet mouth that constantly smiled, her 
heavy white eyelids drooping over her brilliant eyes, 
and complexion “ pale with the golden gleam of an eye- 
lash dead on the cheek” — all these items combined to 
form a most picturesque and unique personality, and a 
type of beauty certain to provoke discussion and arouse 
in some keen admiration, and in others a feeling akin 
to repulsion. 

In Laline Armstrong, or “ Lina Grahame,” as she now 
called herself, there was no element to provoke spon- 


76 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


taneous dislike. A little above the medium height, her 
girlish slenderness made her appear taller than she really 
was ; hut her quick, graceful movements were rather 
those of a short than a tali person. Her habitual ex- 
pression was alternately eager and dreamy. Her soft 
auburn hair, which had grown some shades darker within 
the past few years, was coiled neatly at the back of her 
shapely head, and rippled in natural waves above her 
broad brow. Her nose was short and straight, her 
mouth rather large than small, and full of charming 
curves, humorous and tender, her chin was round, and 
under her level dark eyebrows her eyes, of wonderful 
depth and darkness, looked out with a wistful intent- 
ness, accentuated by the comparative shortness of her 
vision. When Laline was amused she laughed outright, 
showing two rows of dazzling teeth ; whereas Clare 
never passed beyond a smile, in spite of her native Irish 
humour. 

In colouring, too, the girls offered a marked contrast. 
Laline’s complexion was of a pinky fairness, varying 
from cream to a rose-flush in her cheeks, which came 
and went with the least excitement. Her voice was 
lower in pitch, and of a more contralto quality than that 
of Clare, who to the silvery sweetness of Mrs. Yan- 
deleur’s tones added a touch of caressing “ Irish blarney” 
in her intonation. 

“ I should so very much like to help Aunt Cissy in her 
work!” resumed Miss Cavan. “And it seems rather 
hard that I can’t just because I am rather plump, doesn’t 
it? In evening-dress I am only twenty-two inches 
round the waist — and that isn’t absolutely unwieldy, 
is it?” 

“ Hot at all,” said Laline. 

She was beginning to wonder whether she herself 
would get discharged from her post if she grew any 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


77 


fatter ; but she had already decided that in this house- 
hold she must get used to surprising incidents and 
alarming statements, so she made no further comment at 
the time. 

Clare was going to an evening “ At home” at nine 
o’clock, she informed her new acquaintance. 

“ And I shall be so grateful if you will help me to 
dress and give me your opinion of my frock. It is a 
deep-red velvet, cut square. Itather daring with my red 
hair, isn’t it ? But I think the effect is nice.” 

Susan, the maid, entered at that moment with a mes- 
sage to the effect that Mrs. Vandeleur would be glad 
if Miss Grahame would come up -stairs to see her in her 
study. 

“ I can’t come with you,” said Clare — “ I’ve got to 
dress ; and, besides, aunt hasn’t asked me. But I shall 
just pop my head in before I go. I hope she won’t 
frighten you too much ! She’s dreadfully weird at times ; 
and I believe she drove one of her secretaries into an 
asylum. Oh, you’re not the first secretary she’s had by 
at least a dozen ! They’ve all been too mundane or too 
unimpressionable, or too illiterate or not beautiful 
enough, or else Aunt Cissy has sent them quite off their 
heads and they’ve been packed off to asylums! Of 
course she might have saved herself all the expense of 
a secretary by employing me — indeed, that was poor 
mamma’s idea when she left me in Aunt Cissy’s care, 
and my aunt’s idea, too. But, as soon as she saw me, 
she wouldn’t hear of my touching her precious papers 
and things ! However, I am beginning to do her a great 
deal of good socially by going out and talking of my 
wonderful aunt, and making people want to consult her ; 
so that I am worth having after all.” 

Laline was convinced by this speech that Miss Cavan 
deeply resented her aunt’s refusal to employ her as her 

7 * 


78 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


secretary, and that she cherished a keen jealousy against 
any other applicant for the post, and would not be loath 
to warn them away by exaggerating its difficulties and 
dangers. But Laline’s life had taught her self-control, 
and it was with a firm step and composed manner that 
she proceeded to the room on the first floor, given up to 
Mrs. Vandeleur’s “ studies.” 

The apartment occupied the entire first floor of the 
house, which was by no means large. Folding-doors had 
once filled an archway in the middle of the room, but 
they were now replaced by hangings of tapestry. Dark 
oak panelling, mellowed by age, went up to within a 
few feet of the ceiling, across which the stars in their 
courses were painted upon a midnight sky, while a frieze 
of tapestry, which in faded colours and mediaeval out- 
lines pictured the “ Dance of Death,” completed the 
wall-decoration of the apartment. 

The room was full of furniture, chiefly of oak and 
elaborately carved, and many curious old-fashioned cab- 
inets and cupboards of various shapes and sizes were to 
be found in the corners and against the walls. A high 
carved oak mantelshelf was surmounted by a mystical 
picture, incomprehensible to the uninitiated, but which 
was named the “Awakening of the Spirit World;” and 
everywhere, scattered over the mantelpiece, on shelves, 
within glass-covered antique tables, and in the cabinets 
about the room, there was a multitude of curios, of old- 
fashioned charms and relics, of amulets, and metal 
images of roughly-beaten gold, ornaments from the 
East, fat little gods in soapstone and ivory, bead fetiches 
of North American Indians, and delicately-carved skulls 
and skeletons in German work of the Middle Ages — a 
heterogeneous collection, to which the superstitions of 
the entire world seemed to have each contributed their 
part. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


79 


In a deep arm-chair of dark oak, with a high-carved 
back, the little priestess of the room sat among cushions 
of Oriental brocade. The chair was so large and the 
little lady so small and fragile that she seemed to Laline 
to encamp rather than to sit in it; but the darkened 
wood formed a most effective background for her pale 
face and powdered hair. Mrs. Yandeleur was writing 
at a table littered with papers ; but as Laline entered 
she laid down her pen and put her gold-rimmed specta- 
cles on the table. 

“ Sit down, child,” she said, pointing to a low-cushioned 
seat near the wide fireplace, furnished with red tiles 
and shining brass-dogs, upon which logs of wood were 
burning, it being one of Mrs. Yandeleur’s principles to 
ignore the existence of gas and of coals alike — “ sit 
down, and let me look at you! To-morrow morning 
you must come to me for money and buy something 
else to wear. I detest black, and black silk most of 
all!” 

“What would you like me to wear?” asked Laline, 
smiling. 

“ White — white in soft folds. There should be no 
stiff outlines about you ; your skin and hair supply the 
requisite colour.” 

“ But white will get very dirty in London, surely !” 
Laline objected. 

“Mot if you have enough white dresses,” returned 
her employer, loftily. “ Go to-morrow and buy four, of 
creamy-white nun’s veiling. I will make a sketch to 
show you how they must be made. Presently you shall 
have others. I should like to see you in white velvet,” 
she concluded, gazing dreamily at Laline through her 
jewelled eye-glasses, which she invariably used in prefer- 
ence to her spectacles when not alone or not engaged in 
writing. 


80 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ White velvet would be very expensive, I am afraid,” 
Laline was beginning, when Mrs. Y andeleur cut her short. 

“Leave off thinking of money altogether !” she said. 
“What does money matter? If we can have the neces- 
saries of life — and among them I count beautiful sur- 
roundings, which are essential to a woman of my nature 
— of what use is extra money? Look at my niece 
Clare. She is forever drawn this way and that by two 
mastering passions — love of men and their admiration 
and desire of money. The conflict will spoil her beauty. 
Already it is so marked in its results that her presence 
troubles me. The beings by whom in the spirit and the 
flesh I am surrounded must be without harrowing pas- 
sions or disturbing longings. Tell me — how does this 
room affect you ? Stand up, look about you, and speak 
out quite fearlessly.” 

Laline rose and looked about her. As she did so she 
became conscious of a singular perfume, faint but pene- 
trating, which filled the air. This arose in part from 
the many sandal-wood ornaments and receptacles about 
the room, and also from Mrs. Yandeleur’s practice of 
burning joss-sticks and pastilles. 

As Laline afterwards learned, her employer was also 
much addicted to the use of Eastern perfumes, high in 
price and difficult to obtain, with which her hair, hands, 
and clothing were liberally sprinkled. The wood logs, 
too, seemed to emit a fragrant odour, and the mingled 
scents gave to the atmosphere a quality peculiar to that 
room, and with which Laline ever afterwards associated it. 

A lamp of ruby glass, suspended by silver chains from 
the ceiling on the farther side of the tapestry-hangings, 
supplied light to the farther portion of the room, illumi- 
nating feebly the spacious bookcase, the low divans, the 
corner cupboards, and the tall brazier, which formed its 
chief furniture. The standing-lamp of Mrs. Yandeleur’s 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


81 


writing-table was shaded by amber silk, and, with the 
two unlit wax-candles in silver stands on her table, gave, 
but for the dancing firelight, the sole means of illumi- 
nating the apartment. 

Laline stood for a few seconds gazing about her at the 
crystal balls, the strange little ebony wands, the framed 
parchment-scrolls inscribed with cabalistic signs, the 
heavy volumes in moth-eaten covers, and the many other 
signs of abstruse and unwholesome studies into the un- 
known which met her eye. Then she turned slowly, 
fascinated by the piercing gaze of Mrs. Yandeleur; and, 
drawing insensibly a little nearer to her, she scanned 
, that lady’s face. 

“The room is beautiful and interesting,” she said, 
“ but it affects me rather unpleasantly. I feel oppressed 
and stifled, as though a weight had been put upon my 
heart and I could not breathe. There are so many 
things about that I do not understand, and some that 
fascinate but half frighten me. I feel ” 

She hesitated, blushed, then stopped outright. 

“ Go onl” said Mrs. Yandeleur, imperatively. 

“ Well, it sounds tactless and discourteous, but I feel 
as if I would rather be on a wide common, with the 
wind blowing a little rain into my face, than here, and 
that, if I passed much of my life here, I might grow 
into an idle, listless dreamer, with all the best side of my 
nature sent to sleep forever.” 

“ Silly child !” said Mrs. Yandeleur, holding out her 
little hands and gently drawing the girl down on her 
knees beside her chair. “But yours is just the temper- 
ament I want. My secretary, my companion, who will 
take down my ideas and clothe them in suitable lan- 
guage, must not be a mere echo of myself. I am at 
present engaged on two great works. One is to be 
called Necromancy in the Nineteenth Century , and the 
/ 


82 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


other The Occult Vision. With a mind like yours, fresh 
and untainted by the world, to supplement my own, I 
can reach higher altitudes of thought. But for this pur- 
pose your mind and spirit must be as clear as a rivulet, 
in which I may read my changing fancies mirrored. 
While engaged with me on this work, no thoughts of 
either of those disturbing elements, love or money, must 
derange your spirit. I can read in your eyes that you 
are not mercenary; as to love — you have never loved, 
and yet you are keeping back some secret from the 
world and from me.” 

Looking closely into the girl’s eyes, Mrs. Yandeleur 
softly smoothed her forehead with her fingers. Laline 
was conscious of a sudden and overpowering desire to 
confide in the weird little lady, which she rightly attrib- 
uted to the magnetism of the latter’s touch and gaze. 
Disengaging herself by a quick gesture, she rose to her 
feet, and spoke with ringing earnestness and unexpected 
decision. 

“ If I am to help you in your work, Mrs. Yandeleur,” 
she said, “ it is of no use to begin by trying to paralyse 
my will and make it subject to yours. On such terms I 
could not stay with you. I think your work is very 
interesting and fascinating, and that you are exceed- 
ingly kind. I know quite well that I am very easily in- 
fluenced on one side of my character ; but I have another 
side, too, or I should not be here now, nor should I have 
taken my life into my own hands as I did four years ago. 
As to money, I think as you do. As to love and mar- 
riage, they are not for me ; they are shut out of my life 
altogether. I must not think of them either now or at 
any future time. If I have a secret, it is not one to be 
ashamed of. Why, then, try to force it from me ?” 

“I know your secret,” said Mrs. Yandeleur, quietly — 
“you are already married 1” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


83 


CHAPTER IX. 

That night, when Clare Cavan returned at midnight 
from her reception, she thanked the yawning Susan for 
sitting up for her, and softly proceeded to the top floor, 
where were three bedrooms occupied respectively by 
Mrs. Yandeleur’s two servants, and by her niece and her 
new secretary. 

Laline was in bed hut not asleep. She lay awake, 
thinking with interest of her new surroundings. Her 
work that evening had been writing at the dictation of 
Mrs. Yandeleur a long treatise concerning second sight. 
Part of it she had understood, and part had been wholly 
incomprehensible to her, as she was not yet accustomed 
to the semi-mystical jargon in which Mrs. Yandeleur 
clothed her ideas. 

Yery little more talk of a personal nature had passed 
between her and her employer. Laline had neither 
denied nor agreed to the latter’s assertion that she was 
already married, nor had the little lady again alluded to 
the subject, contenting herself by warning her new sec- 
retary against placing any confidence in Clare Cavan, 
who, she declared, had been born under an opposing star 
to that of Laline. 

It was all very new and fascinating to the imaginative 
young girl, coming as this experience did after the mo- 
notonous drudgery of a suburban day-school, and so 
much excited had she been by the incidents of the even- 
ing that she was fully awake when, at a little after 
twelve o’clock, a tap at her bedroom door heralded the 
entrance of Clare Cavan. 

Mrs. Yandeleur’s niece was shading her eyes with one 


84 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


hand from the light of a candle carried in the other. 
Her gown of crimson velvet was cut very low in the 
square front, displaying to full advantage the startling 
whiteness and smooth texture of her skin, and by the 
candle-light her eyes sparkled like green topazes. 

“ Do wake up !” she whispered. “ I’ve something most 
interesting and wonderful to tell you — I’m in love !” 

Placing her candle on the dressing-table, she sat in a 
chair near, and, clasping her hands round her knees, 
proceeded to purr out her story. 

“It was Lady Moreham’s reception, as I told you. 
She goes in for artists and celebrities, and she has an 
immense belief in Aunt Cissy, and consults her about 
everything. Artists, you know, always rave about me ; 
they have the bad taste to admire my horrid red hair ! 
But, to explain really what happened last night, I must 
go back. It’s lovely to have at last a girl of my own 
age to talk to and confide in ! You must know that 
Aunt Cissy gets cards for all private views and that sort 
of thing ; she seldom goes, except to quite the most ex- 
clusive ; but I use her tickets. I simply adore pictures ! 
Well, about two months ago, I was looking at a lovely 
fat Paris Bordone lady in an old-master exhibition. I 
didn’t really mean to attract attention to myself, because 
the lady in the picture had my coloured hair. Do you 
know Paris Bordone’s beauties? They are always fat 
and white-skinned, in clothes much too tight for them, 
with red-velvet dresses and pearls in their red hair. 
Suddenly I heard a voice behind me — a man’s voice — 
say, ‘ By George, what colouring ! The very replica of 
the picture ! She’s superb !’ Of course, I never thought 
he could be talking of me; but I turned round and 
found the man who spoke looking full at me. Such 
a handsome man ! Tall, with a splendid figure, a square 
jaw, black hair, blue eyes — an Irish^combination that I 


TIER FAIRY PRINCE. 


85 


love, though in this case I’ve learned he gets it from his 
Highland descent. He stared at me so hard that I could 
hardly get my eyes away ; he was really looking at me 
so intently that I was quite fascinated. At last I felt I 
was blushing deeply, and he too flushed. His friend 
touched his arm, and that seemed to recall him to him- 
self, for he moved away, and I saw him no more that 
day. It was the strangest thing, for I fell a good deal 
in love with him on the spot, and somehow felt certain 
that I should meet him again. So sure I was, that I had 
my new evening gown, the one I have on now, made 
just like the Paris Bordone picture simply because I felt 
convinced that some day he would see me in it. Aunt 
Cissy would be able to explain the meaning of that sort 
of feeling. I only know that I felt it.” 

“And did you never meet him again until to-night?” 
asked Laline, sitting up in bed, interested, as are all girls, 
in anything in the nature of a love-story. 

“ Once only. He was coming out of the South Ken- 
sington Museum late on a Saturday afternoon, and I had 
been shopping in the Brompton Road. He passed quite 
close to me, and knew me in a moment, as I could see, 
and I was so disappointed that he did not speak to me.” 

“ How could he,” exclaimed Laline, scandalised, “ since 
you are a lady, and, I suppose, he is a gentleman ? It 
would have been an insult which you would have re- 
sented.” 

Clare eyed her curiously under half-lowered white eye- 
lids, and began taking the hairpins out of her hair. 

“ Of course I should 1” she answered, after a slight 
pause. “ But he didn’t. Then I went to the South Ken- 
sington Museum constantly on nearly all the free days 
for more than a month, until I knew all the cases near 
the entrances by heart. But I never met him, and I 
began really to despair until to-night.” 

8 


86 


HER FAIRY PRINCE: 


“ And were yon introduced to him ?” asked Laline, 
much interested. Her notions of what was right and 
becoming in a young gentlewoman had been considera- 
bly startled by Clare’s confessions ; but she was a sym- 
pathetic listener all the same. 

“ As soon as I walked into the room I saw him,” re- 
plied Clare, triumphantly. 11 He was watching me all 
the while I was shaking hands with Lady Moreham; and 
only a few moments after I could feel rather than see 
that he was being brought up to be introduced by Miss 
Moreham, who was helping her mother to receive. He 
had asked to be introduced to me, as I knew he would. 
And fancy ! I had supposed all the time that he was 
only an artist, but I learned that he is in a very good 
position, and will have heaps of money some day. Isn’t 
that delightful ?” 

“Why?” 

“ Why ? Because I adore him ! His eyes are per- 
fectly lovely — they sparkle like blue stars ! And he has 
a trick of listening very attentively when one is talking, 
and just drawing his black eyebrows together while he 
stares hard at one’s face, which is irresistible !” 

“ And is he in love with you ?” 

“ Of course he is ! He fell in love with me the first 
moment he saw me.” 

“ Hid he tell you so ?” K 

“ Ho you think one requires to be told that sort of 
thing ?” inquired Clare, disdainfully. “ He looked it — 
that was enough. Before I left, Miss Moreham contrived 
to compliment me on my conquest. She told me that he 
is next of kin to one of the richest men in London.” 

“ And what will your aunt say ?” 

“ Oh, there is nothing that aunt would like better than 
to see me safely married to somebody with money! 
That is why she buys me nice clothes, and sends me to 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


87 


‘ At homes’ and dances and private views. She wants to 
get me off her hands. In spite of her dreaminess, you’ll 
find later on that there’s a lot of the wisdom of the ser- 
pent about Aunt Cissy.” 

“ Shall you tell her about this ?” 

“ I shall have to, for he’s going to call either to-day or 
the next day. He has heard a great deal about aunt, 
he said, and is very anxious to know her, as he is awfully 
interested in all about palmistry and divination and that 
sort of thing. It is my belief that he’s going to consult 
her as to our future lives. Oh, I shall never sleep to- 
night ! I feel so terribly excited ! I love his voice ; it’s 
deep and sweet, with a certain firmness ; and, when I 
gave him my hand in saying 1 Good-bye,’ he didn’t give 
a conventional handshake, but held it tight a long time. 
I hadn’t the heart to draw it away, as I dare say I 
should have done. It made me thrill all over. I shall 
simply count the minutes until I see him again !” 

There was no doubt in Laline’s mind as to her com- 
panion’s sincerity. Clare’s eyes shone with a tender, 
reflective light, which marvellously enhanced her beauty ; 
and when at last she left off talking of her conquest and 
retired to her own room, it was with the avowed inten- 
tion of dreaming of her new admirer. 

Laline for her part lay awake for a long time after 
Clare’s departure. Just the least little pang of regret, 
which, however, was far removed from envy, shot across 
the young girl’s heart as she reflected that her position 
in life would always be that of confidant and never of 
principal in love-affairs. How short a time it had taken 
that journey in the fiacre in the rain to the house of the 
English Consul ; and yet the effects of that one half-hour 
were to be stamped upon her entire life ! Of her father 
she often thought, sometimes with anxiety not un- 
touched by self-reproach. She did not wish ever to see 


88 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


him again, nor could she school herself to forgive the 
callous greed with which he had designed to make a bar- 
gain of his motherless child. But he was her father — 
her mother had once loved him ; and Laline often won- 
dered how he had weathered the rain-cloud of debts and 
difficulties which had gathered over his head. 

But of the man whom that same fateful visit had 
made her lord and master Laline hardly ever thought at 
all. Her life at Norwood had been too busy to allow 
her to indulge either in recollections of the past or 
dreams of the future, and in the three short weeks that 
she had known Wallace Armstrong she had seen so little 
of him that it was not surprising if her memory of him 
had become blurred and indistinct. The fact that ho 
too was bound for life to a lost mate had hardly ever 
occurred to her ; the bond was of his own choosing, and 
a man who, according to her father’s accusations, was a 
forger and a cheat, might well be expected to ignore any 
ties which brought no profit to him. 

But to-night for the first time the idea of this detested 
husband, this man who, in order to secure for himself an 
income, had married an ignorant child, for whom he 
cared nothing, that a lie might be turned to a truth and 
a victim provided, haunted Laline’s wakeful spirit. She 
was as yet too young and too entirely fancy-free to 
lament with any bitterness the life-long loneliness which 
Wallace Armstrong’s selfish action had entailed upon 
her. But something in Clare’s joyous description of her 
new love-affair recalled with painful clearness to Laline 
the fact that she herself was set apart from all other 
girls, and that never to her ears would a man’s lips mur 
mur words of love. 

“ I can’t understand Clare’s nature,” she said to her- 
self, as she lay with wide-open eyes fixed upon the dark- 
ness. “ Of course I must never let myself grow fond of 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


89 


any man, but if I were as free as she and really cared, I 
could not speak of it to a stranger, and especially a 
stranger I did not like! And I feel sure that Clare 
doesn’t like me, in spite of her friendliness, and that she 
is very jealous of me with her aunt. Life in Queen Mary 
Crescent will be much more difficult and complicated 
than it was at Norwood. But this house is very quiet, 
at least, and no one will dream of seeking for Laline 
Garth in Mrs. Yandeleur’s new secretary Lina Grahame.” 

With this soothing reflection, Laline fell to sleep, only 
to awaken in terror as early morning was breaking 
under the influence of a disquieting dream. It seemed 
to her that she was transported to the gates of an earthly 
paradise, a garden of enchanting beauty, where she 
wandered at will over mossy sward, breathing moss- 
laden air and listening to music of a more than earthly 
sweetness, music that seemed to whisper of love. Sud- 
denly, as she was giving herself up to the full delights 
of the scene, a loud and brutal laugh sounded close 
behind her, her arms were seized and loaded with chains 
which cut into her flesh, and when she awoke and sprang 
up in bed with a stifled scream, weeping and trembling, 
she could still hear ringing in her ears the words of her 
captor — 

“ You belong to me ! I am your husband !” 

Too terrified to go to sleep again, Laline lay awake 
until the morning, and the unpleasant impression re- 
mained so strong that when she came down to breakfast 
her unusual pallor excited Clare’s comments. 

“You look as though you and not I had been up late 
last night,” Miss Cavan said. “ I am always white, so 
that I don’t look any different to-day. You don’t seem 
to have any appetite. What is the matter ?” 

“ Nothing. I’ve only had a horrid dream !” 

“ Oh, you must tell Aunt Cissy ! She is great on 
8 * 


90 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


dreams, and knows what everything in them means. 
People come from tremendous distances to consult her 
about their dreams. What was yours all about ?” 

“Only silly fancies. This morning I want you to tell 
me where I ought to go shopping. You see I don’t 
know London at all, and I have to order four gowns of 
white nun’s veiling, and something white I must get to 
wear in the house this afternoon. I have only three 
dresses — a black silk, a blue serge, and a gray tweed ; 
and your aunt says they all set her teeth on edge, they 
are so dark and stiff and plain.” 

“ So aunt thinks white is your color ?” observed Clare, 
glancing askance at Laline. “ She evidently considers 
you very candid and unsophisticated.” 

The words suggested a sneer, but not so the tone ; and 
that morning Clare proved herself invaluable in assisting 
Laline to make her purchases. She was the right guide 
on such an expedition, having excellent taste and the 
advantages of an extremely economical training; and 
when the girls returned home for luncheon they were 
both laden with parcels and brimful of good-humour 
and excitement. 

Very early in the afternoon Mrs. Yandeleur drove off 
in a hired brougham on some mysterious errand con- 
nected with her divining powers, leaving a message for 
her secretary to the effect that she would return between 
three and four o’clock, and hoped to find Miss Grahame 
awaiting her in the study. Clare Cavan, in a flutter of 
anticipation over her admirer’s visit, betook herself to 
her room to put the finishing touches to her hair and 
toilet, after impressing upon Susan the necessity of let- 
ting her know at once if a gentleman should call to see 
her ; and Laline, in the waning light of a wintry after- 
noon, found herself in the room sacred to her employer’s 
occult studies. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


91 


It was too early for lamplight, yet the shadows cast 
by the dancing flames from the logs looked strange and 
eerie in that room of spells and charms. Altogether in 
keeping with her surroundings was the slender form, 
draped in the soft folds of a tea-gown of creamy-white 
serge and silk, seated on a low chair by the fire gazing 
into the glowing wood. Laline felt very nervous that 
day. Whether it was the result of her dream or the 
influence of the room she could not tell ; but gradually a 
presentiment gathered in her mind that some momentous 
crisis in her life was coming nearer and nearer to her at 
every breath she drew. 

Oppressed and over-strung, divided between a longing 
to fly from the room and a quivering desire to know the 
meaning of the strange foreboding which hung upon her 
spirit, Laline rose and began restlessly moving about 
the room, lightly lifting and as quickly putting down 
various trifles which arrested her attention. The fire- 
light, glancing here and there, centred and sparkled on a 
crystal ball which stood on Mrs. Yandeleur’s desk. In 
the magic crystal, Laline’s employer had gravely assured 
her, those of pure hearts and minds, when they knew 
its secret, could see mirrored the future and the past. 
Laline raised the crystal in her hands and pored into 
its depths. 

Half mesmerised by so intent a gaze, the memory of 
last night’s dream returned in force upon her mind, 
thrown out of balance by her agitated nerves and 
strange surroundings. Mistily, as she looked, she seemed 
to behold a face she once knew mirrored within the 
glistening depths of the crystal. But before she could 
do more than recognise the features of the man she had 
married, the study-door opened, and a voice, not from 
dreamland but from reality, spoke the name — 

“ Mr. Wallace Armstrong I” 


92 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


CHAPTER X. 

At the announcement by the servant “ Mr. Wallace 
Armstrong” the crystal ball fell from Laline’s relaxed 
fingers and rolled upon the floor. 

She stood as though paralysed, with her back to the 
window, through which the last rays of a fast-fading 
sunset touched her bright hair, making a halo of gold 
round her shadowed face. Her eyes were lowered ; she 
dared not lift them ; dared not meet her husband’s 
gaze; dared not speak lest he should recognise her 
voice. 

Wallace Armstrong, for his part, coming into the dark 
room, could distinguish little but a tall, slender woman’s 
figure in long white draperies, a figure that neither 
moved nor spoke when the servant announced him, but 
stood more like a wraith than a living thing between 
him and the light. Was it a trick of the celebrated 
Mrs. Yandeleur, he wondered, to receive strangers in 
this way? It was certainly original and striking, if 
hardly calculated to set visitors at their ease. 

“ Is it Mrs. Yandeleur?” he asked. “ I am afraid you 
dropped something as I came in. May I find it for 
you ?” 

As he bent his head Laline looked down upon it, and 
remembered, with a little quiver of repulsion, how often 
at the Rue Planche she had noticed his thick curly 
black hair. 

“Here it is!” he exclaimed, at that moment. “A 
crystal ball. It isn’t broken or even chipped. Is it a 
magic crystal, like the one Rossetti wrote about ?” 

Still she did not answer, and found, to her horror, that 
he was looking at her in surprise. Raising her eyes to 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


93 


bis in a sudden defiant impulse, she realised at once that 
Wallace had changed almost as much as she herself had 
done. For one thing, the heavy dark moustache, which 
four years ago had shaded his mouth, was close shaved ; 
he wore his hair much shorter than before, and the look 
of brooding sullenness was gone from his brow. He 
was now to all appearance as perfectly “ in condition,” 
physically and mentally, as before at Boulogne he had 
been neglected and “ run down.” Under straight black 
eyebrows his brilliant blue eyes glanced in searching in- 
terested fashion upon the face of the still figure before 
him; but the old haggard insolence, the old defiance 
and distrust, seemed to have entirely disappeared from 
his voice, face, and bearing, and before she had even 
opened her lips to speak to him, Laline felt that the 
horror and the hatred of years had already begun to 
melt away within her heart. 

“I hope you will forgive me, Mrs. Yandeleur,” the 
visitor observed, after a short pause, “ for my intrusion. 
But I know so many of your intimate friends very well 
indeed that I thought I might venture to call, on the 
strength of the letter from Lady Moreham, which I 
sent to you by messenger this morning. I hope, by the 
way, that you received it ?” 

It was necessary for Laline to speak at last, and in 
very low tones she informed Mr. Armstrong that Mrs. 
Yandeleur was out, and that she was her secretary. 

Her heart beat so violently as she spoke that it seemed 
to choke her, and she almost feared that he would hear 
its throbbing. She had often been told that her speak- 
ing voice was one of unusual depth and sweetness, and 
she dreaded lest he should recognise its tones. But 
though he inclined his head a little in her direction, the 
better to catch her murmured words, Mr. Armstrong 
made no comment upon them, but broke at once into 


94 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


talk upon the different objects of interest about the 
room. 

“ May I wait here until Mrs. Yandeleur returns?” he 
asked j and, when she bowed her head in response, he 
went on at once with his remarks. “ Like a page of old- 
world romance this room is. One might expect any 
wonder amid such surroundings. Are you versed in 
occult lore, may I ask ? Miss Cavan, as I understand, 
admits that it has a kind of terrifying fascination for 
her.” 

A light seemed to flash upon Laline. This man, Wal- 
lace Armstrong, her husband, was none other than Clare 
Cavan’s rich admirer, to whom she had been introduced 
on the preceding evening. Why had not some presci- 
ence taught her-— Laline — who it was that Clare had 
described as tall and strong, blue-eyed, black-haired, of 
Ilighland descent, and next-of-kin to one of the richest 
men in London ! 

This man, then, had presented himself at Mrs. Yan- 
deleur’s house in the character of her niece’s lover, dis- 
regarding altogether the ceremony which had bound 
him, more than four years ago, to a bride who had 
escaped from him. 

As to his gentleness of manner, Laline knew better 
than to trust to that. Vividly, while he spoke, she 
recalled Wallace’s good-humour and kindness to her 
friends the children, and the treats he had given them 
at the pastry-cook’s, and afterwards in that memorable 
drive. All the experiences of those three weeks seemed 
to crowd back upon the girl’s memory, the while Wal- 
lace, not unnaturally mistaking her awkward silence for 
shyness, strove by talking to put her at her ease. 

If only Mrs. Yandeleur or Clare would come, she 
thought, and end this terrible tete-a-tete ! She scarcely 
heeded the words he uttered, so concerned was she in 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


95 


listening for tones in his voice which she could recognise. 
She had never even asked him to sit down, nor did she 
dare to ring for lights. So that she was standing just 
where he had found her on entering the room, with her 
back to the window and her hands clasped before her, 
when the door opened noiselessly, and Clare Cavan crept 
towards them. 

“ Why, how dark it is I” she exclaimed. “ And how 
stupid of Susan to have shown you up here, Mr. Arm- 
strong! How are you? I must ring at once for the 
lamp. I had no idea that you were here.” 

“ I think the servant was under the impression that 
your aunt had returned,” said Wallace, as ho turned 
to shake hands with Clare. In an instant Laline 
made a swift movement towards the door, hoping to 
escape before he had clearly seen her ; but in this design 
she was circumvented by the sudden entry of Susan, 
who met her in the doorway, carrying in her hands the 
upper portion of the tall lamp which usually stood by 
the side of Mrs. Yandeleur’s writing-table. 

The light fell full on Laline’s face, and quick as 
thought Wallace Armstrong turned and gazed upon her 
features thus revealed to him. As though to facilitate 
his inspection, Susan, lamp in hand, paused by the door 
to inform Miss Grahame of Mrs. Yandeleur’s return ; 
and Wallace Armstrong gazed his fill, and all his life 
remembered vividly just how her face looked then — the 
lovely flesh-tints paled with agitation and fear, the soft 
dark eyes distended, and between the level brown eye- 
brows two perpendicular lines indicative of worry and 
distress. Every curve of the parted red lips, of the 
firmly-modelled chin and long well-rounded throat, he 
learned by heart in those few seconds, and his eyes 
lingered with wondering admiration upon her small 
pink ear, set far back, and enhanced in beauty by the 


96 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


bright hair, almost yellow at this point, which half- 
veiled the upper portion of its curled outline. 

Clare Cavan noted with astonishment and indignation 
the direction of Wallace’s eyes — noted, too, the percept- 
ible start he gave as he first beheld Laline’s face in the 
full light, and the fixed intensity of his gaze. A keen 
stab of venomous jealousy shot through Clare’s heart, 
and she mentally registered a vow to be even with 
Laline for having provoked Mr. Armstrong’s attention. 

Left alone with Clare, Wallace surprised her by mak- 
ing no reference to Laline. He began, on the contrary, 
at once to talk of the various persons whom they had 
met on the preceding evening — light desultory conver- 
sation, not at all after Miss Cavan’s heart, which he con- 
tinued until the entrance of Mrs. Yandeleur broke up 
their tete-a-tete. 

Wallace Armstrong was a man of considerable de- 
termination and strength of character, as might be 
guessed by the squareness of his jaw and the firm lines 
of his handsome mouth. He had fully made up his 
mind this afternoon to please Mrs. Yandeleur, and he 
succeeded admirably. The genuine interest he took 
both in her personality and her pursuits made it easy 
work for him to please her, the more so as the little lady 
was greatly swayed by the outside appearance of those 
she met, and Mr. Armstrong’s finely proportioned figure, 
handsome face, and frank and courteous manners were 
well calculated to satisfy the most exacting of women. 

To him the experience was unique and delightful. 
This picturesque little old-young lady, with her pow- 
dered hair, her odd talk and pretensions to hidden 
powers, her shimmering gray-satin gown redolent of 
some faint Eastern perfume, her dainty lace frills and 
cuffs, her small fingers sparkling with diamonds, and 
her searching dark eyes peering at him from behind 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


97 


her jewelled eye-glasses, Wallace considered a most 
interesting and delightful personage ; while, as offering 
a contrast to her rococo charm, Clare Cavan, in a tea- 
gown of sea-green cashmere and silk, her untidy yellow- 
red hair crowning her alluring white face, appeared to 
supply just the note of flesh-and-blood actuality which 
would otherwise have been wanting in the scene. 

Clare made tea, and hovered near him as much as 
possible. Not once did Mr. Armstrong allude to his 
meeting with the secretary; but he questioned Mrs. 
Yandeleur closely as to the properties of the crystal 
which he had seen fall from Laline’s hands when he 
entered the room. 

“ The story is that only certain special temperaments 
can discover anything in it, isn’t it ?” he asked, while he 
held the ball in his hands and examined it carefully. 

“ It is a gift,” said Mrs. Yandeleur — “a gift given to 
few. Happily I have discovered a young girl whose 
mind is so finely tempered that in time she may go very 
far, very far indeed, in the study of the occult.” 

“ Indeed ! May I ask how you came across her ?” 

“ Outsiders would tell you by accident ; but my creed 
does not admit of accident. I put certain words in a 
public print, and directed them to one particular type of 
mind. I wanted that especial spirit ; I appealed to that, 
and it came to me as surely as a needle comes to a magnet. 
That was all.” 

“ But you had heaps and heaps of unsuitable replies as 
well, aunt,” put in Clare, sweetly. 

It was by such remarks as this that she daily alienated 
her aunt’s liking more completely ; but for reasons of 
her own Clare did not wish the conversation to turn 
upon Laline. 

“ They do not count,” said Mrs. Yandeleur, loftily, 
though with a shade of annoyance on her brow. “ The 
e g 9 


98 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


world will always be composed of the two or three who 
understand and the millions who do not. Suffice it that 
I found the temperament I required — a creature of per- 
fect purity and truth, unsullied by thoughts of love or 
mQney. ,, 

“ ‘ Her soul was pure and true ; 

The good stars met in her horoscope, 

Made her of spirit, fire, and dew,’ ” 

quoted Wallace Armstrong, looking steadily in the fire, 
as though he saw some picture there — a picture, it might 
be, of a tall and slender maiden, in straight white dra- 
peries, with her sweet face lowered and the light making 
an aureole of her hair. 

“ Whose lines are those,” asked Mrs. Vandeleur, much 
interested, u and why do you quote them ?” 

“ They are from Browning’s ‘ Evelyn Hope,’ and they 
seemed appropriate to such a woman as you were de- 
scribing.” 

“ You have seen Miss G-rahame, my aunt’s secretary, 
of whom she is speaking, Mr. Armstrong,” said Clare, 
hardly able to control her vexation, but speaking very 
sweetly. “ She was here with you when I came in.” 

“ There was a lady here when I entered, and I sup- 
posed that she was Mrs. Yandeleur at first,” he answered, 
composedly ; “ but she hardly spoke, except to tell me 
of my mistake, and it was much too dark to see her 
face.” 

“I thought you saw her when the lamp came in,” 
observed Clare, innocently. “ She is such a nice girl, 
full of fun, and does so enjoy shopping! I hope you 
will like the tea-gown I got for her at Baker’s this 
morning, aunt. Lina much prefers stiff tweed or serge 
tailor-built things ; but I knew you insisted upon white 
dresses and flowing lines for her, so I coaxed her into 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


99 


having them. I don’t think I ever saw anybody so fond 
of sweets ; she is quite like a child in a grocer’s shop 1” 

By this artfully-planned speech Clare hoped that she 
had spoiled the romantic effect of Laline’s appearance. 
“ Evelyn Hope” enjoying sweets in a grocer’s shop, and 
with difficulty restrained from purchasing tweed tailor- 
made gowns, was surely sufficiently prosaic. Apparently 
Wallace thought so too, for he did not pursue the sub- 
ject, and the talk presently drifted to palmistry. 

“ Some day you must tell my fortune, Mrs. Yandeleur,” 
her visitor said. 

“ A good deal of it I can read in your face,” said the 
little lady, promptly. “You have considerable self-con- 
trol, but you are capable of going to the greatest lengths 
of what people would call folly for the sake of one you 
love. You like many people ; you love very few. But 
where you love, it is a passion, a religion.” 

He flushed deeply, and then laughed. 

“ I don’t think I am quite so fine a character as you 
are kind enough to suppose me,” he said. “ There are 
no deep tragedies in the daily routine of life at a bank 
for a rich man’s nephew.” 

“ Yet you have had some moving experiences,” pur- 
sued Mrs. Yandeleur thoughtfully, still scanning him 
through her eye-glasses — “ experiences involving much 
will-power and considerable self-sacrifice, and making 
their mark upon your after-life.” 

“ Has Lady Moreham told you much about me ?” he 
asked, quickly. 

“ I do not need to be told by others what I can read 
in your face. Give me your hand ; now both hands.” 

She bent closely over first one and then the other for 
a moment, and then looked up. 

“ Another’s life, another’s career is strangely involved 
in yours,” she said. “ Your line of fate is hampered by 


100 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


another’s. It is an association which will bring you 
nothing but harm. It still lies within your power to 
sever it.” 

Clare Cavan, watching curiously, saw the young man’s 
healthy colour pale and a set look come into his mouth. 
But he did not speak, and Mrs. Yandeleur continued. 

“Just at this point in your career the easy life you 
have led of late will be utterly changed. Your whole 
existence will be swerved from its ordinary course, for 
a new and most powerful element will enter it. From 
what I can judge, it will be love, the love of a woman.” 

A triumphant smile flashed into Clare’s eyes. She 
was inclined to place implicit faith in her aunt’s prophe- 
cies, and had little doubt but that a passion for herself 
would be the new element introduced into Wallace Arm- 
strong’s career. Apart from his monetary position, she 
was really very much in love with this extremely per- 
sonable young man, who clearly admired her, and was 
desirous of getting into her aunt’s good graces. Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s Sibylline speeches about his future were 
therefore profoundly interesting to Clare, who sat sup- 
porting her chin on her hands in a picturesque attitude 
near the fire, listening with all her ears. 

“ Your love-affairs will bring you a great deal of 
trouble,” pursued the little prophetess. “ Or, rather, I 
should say, your love-affair, for you will have but one.” 

“ Won’t she return my affection, then ?” asked Wallace, 
half laughing, but with a note of suppressed eagerness 
in his voice. 

“ There will be trouble and partings and evil wrought 
you by an enemy, until death severs a link and you are 
free.” 

Mrs. Yandeleur spoke slowly and oracularly on her 
last words ; she dropped his hands, and, leaning back in 
her chair, passed her fingers wearily over her eyes. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


101 


“ I am tired,” she said. “ But I foresee trouble before 
you, and I should like to warn you, for I take a great 
interest in you. Be very wary of your friends. False 
love and false friendship are Will-o’-the-wisps, to lead 
you to destruction. Now you must go. I have my 
work to attend to. But you must come and see me 
again often, very often, for I like you.” 

With an imperial graciousness she stretched out her 
hand, which Wallace lightly kissed, as he felt he was 
expected to do. 

“ I am really grateful for your kind forethought 
about my future,” he said, “ and I shall certainly come 
again.” 

He was not in the least superstitious, and Mrs. Yande- 
leur’s pretensions to omniscience surprised and amused 
him ; but he realised that she was at least sincere in her 
charlatanism, and that she believed in herself almost as 
much as she expected others to believe in her. More- 
over, she had touched a sore and secret place in his 
heart in her rambling talk. No one knew better than 
he how the course of his life for the past few years had 
been overshadowed by an association of ill omen, so far 
as his own prospects were concerned, and Mrs. Yande- 
leur’s intuition in this respect impressed him consider- 
ably. 

Clare Cavan led him down the stairs and opened the 
street-door for him, looking strangely beautiful with the 
light from the ruby-coloured lamp in the hall falling on 
her shining hair and white face, and Wallace turned on 
the pavement to look back and bow again to her. But 
Miss Cavan had closed the door, not finding the north- 
east wind to her liking ; and at the dining-room window, 
close pressed against the glass, watching his retreating 
figure, was the face of the secretary, Lina Grahame, 
wearing a look of unmistakable dislike and fear. 

9 * 


102 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“That little old lady with the powdered hair is a 
witch !” Wallace said to himself, as he pursued his way. 
“ I am already in love, and already in trouble over it.” 


CHAPTER XI. 

That night Laline went to bed with her head in a 
whirl of emotion and perplexity. 

All through the evening she had had to endure the 
comments of both Mrs. Yandeleur and her niece on the 
manners and appearance, the character, and the pros- 
pects of Wallace Armstrong, and had had to listen, to 
all appearance unmoved, while the possibilities of his 
falling in love and marrying were freely discussed. 

And all the while she knew that she was his wife, sold 
by an impecunious father, bought by a penniless hus- 
band, unrecognised and forgotten, but his wife none the 
less in the eyes of the law and the sight of heaven. 

She could have laughed aloud when Mrs. Yandeleur 
gravely stated that Wallace Armstrong was a man of 
“singular nobility of character, of fine artistic tastes, 
chivalrous instincts, and a high disregard of mercenary 
considerations.” She could not even join in praise of his 
good looks. 

“ I think I have a prejudice against men with square 
jaws and black hair and light eyes,” was all that she 
said. 

But there was a marked constraint in her tone, and 
Mrs. Yandeleur glanced at her sharply. 

“ You seem to have taken a dislike against Mr. Arm- 
strong,” she said. “It is curious, for his is a nature 
which should blend perfectly with yours. I should cer- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


103 


tainly not have thought you had been born under op- 
posing planets.” 

“ I don’t feel that I ever want to meet him asrain !” 
said Laline, emphatically. 

“Above all, dear,” exclaimed Mrs. Yandeleur, holding 
up a warning forefinger, “ don’t attempt to run counter 
to such an instinct as that! When your whole spirit 
seems to rise in arms against a personality, the feeling 
of repulsion is given you as a token to beware of them ; 
and, if you feel as you say towards Mr. Armstrong, have 
nothing whatever to do with him !” 

“ I will take your advice,” said Laline, dutifully. 

But the oddest little prick of vexation came to her as 
she spoke.' In spite of her dread of her husband, and 
her terror lest he should recognise in her the lost Laline, 
she had been strangely interested in him that afternoon. 
Ilis gentleness and geniality she knew to be a sham, 
his agreeable manners merely things he assumed and 
dropped at will. Hone knew better than she that Wal- 
lace Armstrong was a man without honour, principle, or 
remorse — one who would lie and cheat and drink and 
swear, who would strike an old man and deceive a 
friendless girl — a creature in whom no truth was to be 
found. And yet, in spite of all this, and of the fact that 
he had entered Mrs. Yandaleur’s house in the character 
of Clare Cavan’s favoured admirer, Laline could not rid 
her mind of a secret hankering to see him again. 

After all, he was her husband, although he did not 
know it. It would be her duty not to let his courtship 
of Clare go too far. Beveal herself she could not and 
would not ) but she might at least contrive to learn from 
him news of her father. With such excuses she tried 
to blind herself to the fact that she wanted — greatly 
wanted, and yet as greatly feared — to meet Wallace 
Armstrong again. 


104 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


The thought of him was ever present in her mind, 
although neither Mrs. Yandeleur nor Clare could con- 
trive to draw from her another remark concerning him. 
Her brain was fully occupied with him as she put her 
head down on her pillow, and it was but natural that he 
should dominate her dreams, through the whole course 
of which she fancied herself alternately pursuing and 
fleeing from her husband. 

Life at Ho. 21, Queen Mary Crescent was an entirely 
novel experience for Laline. Mrs. Y andeleur breakfasted 
in her bedroom — a small but cosy apartment on the 
ground floor, built out at the back of the house, and ad- 
joining the dining- and drawing-rooms. By eleven 
o’clock she was visible, and Laline was required to read 
aloud to her, to copy or write at dictation, and to listen 
to long, rambling accounts of her employer’s dreams, 
her opinions, or her psychic experiences. At half-past 
one the secretary was sent down-stairs to her luncheon ; 
and from half-past three to half-past six or seven on four 
days a week Mrs. Yandeleur received visitors by appoint- 
ment, and was by them consulted as to their past, 
present, and future. 

There was no fixed rate of payment for these inter- 
views ; and, but for Clare’s insidious suggestions, Laline 
would have thought that Mrs. Yandeleur cast horoscopes, 
read hands, and shuffled cards from pure love of necro- 
mantic lore. But on this point Miss Cavan undeceived 
her. 

“Of course, dear Aunt Cissy doesn’t make fixed 
charges,” she purred, “ because she knows its actionable. 
There’s an absurd prejudice against fortune- telling and 
all that sort of thing, you know, though it’s only really 
wicked when dirty old women do it at the back door ! 
When ladies call on Aunt Cissy, after Susan has shown 
them into the drawing-room, and you hav3 next gone in 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


105 


and taken stock of them and prepared annt to receive 
them, they talk to her about themselves and their char- 
acters and their love-affairs, and ask her advice and so 
on, till she must be perfectly sick of them! And, 
although she likes the importance of it enormously, 
divination and all that sort of thing take it out of her 
dreadfully. So it’s only fair that she should get paid 
well for it. People know that, and, when they go, they 
slip gold or a cheque under the blotting-book on the 
writing-table. I peeped in once just before a seance , and 
saw the ends of several cheques sticking out of the 
shark’ s-skin cover of the blotter, and several loose sov- 
ereigns on the table beside it, just to give visitors a hint, 
no doubt. Aunt Cissy only has a mean little allowance 
from her husband — nothing like enough to satisfy her 
desire for the beautiful. You can’t surround yourself 
with old oak and old silver and china and curios, and 
wear the whitest diamonds and the finest lace on two 
hundred a year. Oh, Aunt Cissy’s very rich indeed — or 
she would be if she didn’t waste so much money on 
knick-knacks and lumber !” 

More than once Laline asked herself if she was not 
tacitly condoning a fraud by accepting her position in 
the establishment. But it was so clear that Mrs. Yan- 
deleur thoroughly believed in herself, and also so certain 
that her intuition was little short of marvellous and her 
advice generally excellent, that Laline could not esteem 
her less on account of her professional fortune-telling. 

Only on very rare occasions was Laline present at the 
interviews between Mrs. Yandeleur and her clients. The 
secretary herself, slim and tall, in her straight, white 
draperies, was a fascinating addition to the little Sibyl’s 
household, her pure profile and dreamy dark eyes proving 
specially attractive to Mrs. Yandeleur’s male visitors. 
Clare Cavan, listening to all that passed between Laline 


10G 


IIER FAIRY PRINCE. 


and these latter from behind the plush curtains between 
the dining- and drawing-rooms, clenched her fists with 
envy, and could scarcely repress her scorn for a girl who 
let slip such splendid opportunities of securing valuable 
presents and the possibility of a brilliant marriage. 

“ It’s aunt’s wicked jealousy which makes her forbid 
me to see anybody who calls on business,” Miss Cavan 
told herself. “ That fool Lina snubbed a Russian prince 
yesterday! If I had been in her place, and he had 
offered me jewelry, I wouldn’t have let him off under a 
hundred-guinea bracelet. I know as well as she does 
how to take care of myself ; but an offer like that de- 
serves something better than a frigid 1 1 have no jewels, 
and I require none ! I will tell Mrs. Yandeleur you wish 
to consult her on your domestic affairs, and will explain 
by whom you are introduced.’ Lina is a prude, or else 
she is much deeper than I am.” 

Meantime Clare was somewhat concerned because a 
whole week had elapsed since Wallace Armstrong’s visit. 
It was true that he had written to Mrs. Yandeleur, ask- 
ing whether she and her niece and secretary would care 
to pay a visit to the ancient house over Alexander Wal- 
lace’s bank, to take tea there with himself and his uncle ; 
but the wording of his letter had been far from satisfac- 
tory to Miss Cavan. 

“ I know how much interested you are in all that is 
ancient and historical,” he wrote, “ and I feel sure that, 
with your vivid imagination and insight, you would 
people some of the old rooms with occupants long since 
dead. My uncle, who declares himself too old to pay 
visits, and who is indeed verging on seventy, is very de- 
sirous of making your acquaintance. His early Scotch 
training inclines him to especial interest in second sight 
and similar phenomena, and I am certain that you would 
have many subjects in common. He particularly loves 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


107 


to see bright young faces about him, and would, I know, 
be delighted to welcome those charming young ladies, 
Miss Cavan, and your secretary Miss Grahame, under his 
roof. So that I hope you will be able to fix an after- 
noon next week on which to honour the old house with a 
visit.” 

Mrs. Yandeleur had shown this letter to Clare, whose 
anger over one portion thereof had been extreme. 

“ Those charming young ladies, Miss Cavan and Miss 
Grahame,” was the line that especially stuck in Clare’s 
throat. By some means Lina Grahame must be kept 
away from this visit, which should be made to serve the 
very desirable purpose of introducing Clare to her future 
husband’s uncle. That Alexander Wallace would take 
a great fancy to her Clare never doubted. Old men 
always admired her, her striking colouring and beauti- 
fully-rounded figure appealing even to the purblind. 
And she meant to be a very good niece to the wealthy 
banker, and a devoted wife to Wallace, so long as she 
should remain in love with him ; and at the present 
time she did not foresee the possibility of her quick pas- 
sion waning, as it had done on previous occasions. But 
Lina Grahame must not be present to spoil her plans ; 
and Clare was greatly relieved when that young lady 
flatly refused the invitation as soon as it was announced 
to her. 

“ I shall ask Mrs. Yandeleur to let me stay at home,” 
she said, while a deep flush spread over her face. 

It was not only that she dreaded seeing more of her 
husband, in spite of the lurking fascination which he 
exercised over her, but that she felt unequal to the sig- 
nal hypocrisy of meeting face to face that kindly-natured 
old Alexander Wallace, whose letter welcoming her as 
his niece she so well remembered reading in the streets 
of Boulogne more than four years ago. Naturally truth- 


108 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


ful and sincere, Laline felt that it would be impossible 
for her to grasp the old man by the hand and sit at his 
table, the while she was rewarding his hospitality and 
friendliness with mean deceit, and that she would be 
untrue to herself were she to submit to such an ordeal. 

Clare understood none of the thoughts which flew 
through her companion’s brain, but she could not fail to 
note the changes on Laline’s face, the sudden blush and 
the agitated expression in her eyes. 

“ I think you are quite right not to go,” she said, 
soothingly. “ Of course aunt and I and the nicer sort 
of people one meets appreciate you thoroughly, and 
know that you are a lovely and charming and well-bred 
lady. But I have heard that dear Mr. Armstrong was 
at one time rather go-ahead, and men are so stupid 
about little social distinctions ; they never seem to real- 
ise the difference between a secretary and a lady’s-maid, 
especially if both are pretty!” 

Laline knew by this time quite enough of Clare to 
understand that the latter wished her to remain at home, 
and she almost laughed outright at the idea that she 
must not meet her own husband, lest she might spoil 
another girl’s chances of marrying him. But there was 
no thought of marriage yet, and there would be time 
enough to speak out before then. Laline felt that she 
had reached a point in her life when to look forward 
was impossible. Wallace himself knew that he was 
married, and surely that knowledge should be sufficient 
to deter him from creating false hopes within another 
girl’s heart! But in Wallace’s honour, as Laline knew 
well, but little reliance was to be placed, and a pang of 
pity went through her as she looked at Clare and noticed 
the eager brightness of her eyes. 

“Are you really fond of this Wallace Armstrong?” 
she asked her. . 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


109 


“My dear, I simply adore him! Do you wonder? 
Oh, I forgot that you didn’t admire him ! But you must 
admit that he is handsome and fascinating.” 

“ I dare say many people would think so. But you 
told me just now that he had been wild. Surely you 
could not love a man of really bad reputation 1” 

“ Oh, he has sown his wild oats by this time, no doubt! 
I should think he is nearly thirty. Besides, all men go 
the pace a little — I’m sure I should if I were a man. It’s 
really too bad that we women should have to be so very, 
very good ! Besides, I didn’t hear anything very bad — 
only that he’d gambled a little bit and got into debt and 
been sent abroad for a time to cool him down. You 
can’t cut a man for that sort of thing, otherwise one 
would have to drop all one’s male acquaintances except 
school-boys.” 

Laline said no more. It was obviously impossible under 
the circumstances to warn Clare. Sometimes the girl 
wondered whether she should confide in Mrs. Yande- 
leur; but again she hesitated. Might not that lady — 
who, if her niece spoke truly, was of the world -worldly 
— be inclined to advise her young secretary to leave off 
the difficult struggle for life of a penniless girl, and, by 
simply announcing her identity, become reconciled to an 
easy and prosperous existence with a wealthy husband, 
who to strangers’ eyes appeared to be all that was hand- 
some, well-bred, and charming ? 

The mere idea was horrible to Laline. Never so long 
as she lived would she forget that scene of which she 
had been an unsuspected witness on her wedding morn- 
ing. At any moment she could close her eyes and recall 
her father’s flushed face and the angry pallor of her 
husband, could see both men, excited by drink and hate, 
struggling within a few feet of where she stood. At 
any moment she could recall the callous tones in which 

10 


110 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


her newly-made husband had spoken of her as a “ lanky, 
half-fledged school-girl,” who would be a “ drag and a 
burden” on his life after having served his purpose by 
procuring for him his uncle’s money and favour, and 
could hear again the sinister menace in his tones when 
he alluded to the possibility that she might refuse to tell 
lies to Alexander Wallace on his behalf. 

That scene in the little salon of the Rue Planche had 
been the turning-point of Laline’s career, and had sud- 
denly transformed the dreamy, lonely child, supersen- 
sitive to kindness and of grateful, docile nature, into 
a woman, alert and thoughtful beyond her years, and 
armed with self-control, with suspicion, and with re- 
serve. 

Her nature was not meant to tend towards indepen- 
dence and mistrust of others. Love had been a necessity 
to Laline as a child ; she had loved her mother intensely, 
and had felt her loss as irreparable. Torn from the re- 
fined seclusion of her early home, she had tried to adapt 
herself to the impecunious Bohemianism of her father’s 
house, and had tried also very hard indeed to love her 
father. Had Wallace Armstrong not shown himself in 
his true colours on his wedding morning, she would 
in all probability have grown much attached to him, 
in spite of his sullen temper and dissipated habits. 
Already he had appeared to her eyes as a hero, a fairy 
prince, who had come to rescue Cinderella from Benoite’s 
back kitchen and eternal darning, cooking, and dish- 
washing. But when, by the half-open salon door, she 
had stood and heard her husband and father quarrelling 
over the terms of the sale by which she had become 
Wallace Armstrong’s property to free him from his 
money difficulties, her child’s heart broke within her 
breast ; she seemed to see the very minds and souls of 
the two men, vicious, sordid, and cruel, and her pure 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


Ill 


spirit shrank in horror at the sight. The impression 
was one which neither time nor the wear and tear of 
life would ever efface ; and even now, when Wallace Arm- 
strong had again appeared within her life, to all appear- 
ance a reformed character, with little trace of his former 
self remaining between her and her thoughts of him, 
the black soul of the scoundrel who had married her 
seemed to rise in warning against the folly of trusting 
such a man. 

It was on a Saturday that Clare had discussed with 
Laline the invitation to the bank, a day that Laline ever 
afterwards remembered, bleak and wintry, the sky a 
chill gray, deepening to saffron near the horizon. On 
Saturday and Wednesday afternoons Mrs. Yandeleur 
drove out, sometimes with her secretary and sometimes 
alone. On this particular day she was bidden to a con- 
ference between patrons of the “occult” and distin- 
guished sceptics at the house of a well-known woman of 
title interested in every new craze. Before four o’clock 
Clare also left the house to go to one of the many “ At 
homes” at which her beauty and liveliness rendered her 
a most popular guest ; and Laline found herself for the 
first time since her arrival in London alone and free, 
with at least three hours at her own disposal. 

Twenty-one Queen Mary Crescent was by no means a 
cheerful house after dusk, being full of creaking boards 
and a general “ eeriness.” Laline wanted to think, and 
had never lost her old love of wandering about alone in 
the open air. Within ten minutes of Clare’s departure 
therefore she emerged from the house in her blue serge 
gown and a long fur-lined black cloak, and struck at 
once from the High Street into Kensington Gardens, her 
cheeks rosy under the touch of frosty air, and her heart 
beating with a strange excitement, which seemed to pre- 
sage some unusual experience* 


112 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


CHAPTER XII. 

Laline met very few people in Kensington Gardens 
that afternoon. 

The wind was keen, and every now and then drifting 
snowflakes told of the coming storm. The Round Pond 
was covered with a thin sheet of ice, and upon the 
green roof of Kensington Palace the snow was lightly 
strewn. 

Laline walked fast, with eyes fixed steadfastly in 
front of her, absorbed in her own thoughts, holding her 
cloak together round her, and bending her supple frame 
to the wind. 

It was her first walk unattended in the Gardens, and 
her errant footsteps led her to a long leafless avenue, 
through which she walked rapidly, listening to the wind 
in the branches above her head. 

Suddenly mingling with the sound came a voice close 
behind her, upon hearing which she stopped with a 
smothered cry and turned a startled face towards the 
speaker. 

Some instinct had told her that she would meet him, 
and it was to her own astonishment that she realised 
how glad she was to see him. 

“ Good-afternoon, Miss Grahame ! Isn’t it odd ? Bad 
as the day is, I felt certain I should meet you here 1” 

“ And I knew that I should meet you,” she returned, 
quickly, before taking thought ; then, seeing the glad- 
ness in his eyes, she added, hastily, — 

“That is nothing 1 I have had those presentiments 
about people ever since I was a child. And they are 
not necessarily about people I know and like well, but 
also ” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


113 


“ About people you dislike — such as I ?” 

“ I was not going to say that, Mr. Armstrong,” she 
said, rather coldly. “‘About strangers,’ I should have 
said, although I really think,” she added, thoughtfully, 
“that there is a sympathy of dislike, if one can call 
it so.” 

“ And so by your sympathy of dislike you knew I 
should be here, and by my sympathy of like I knew you 
would be here — and we have met.” 

This was flirting, of course. Even inexperienced 
Laline knew that quite well. There was, of course, no 
harm in flirting with one’s own husband ; but then he 
did not know he was that, and must be put in his 
place. 

“ I am not good at discussing abstract subjects with 
strangers,” she said ; “ and, also, I must be getting back 
home now.” 

“ Just a moment,” he pleaded. “ I know Mrs. Yande- 
leur will be at Lady Northlake’s conversazione — so that 
she can spare you ; and this keen wind is wonderfully 
invigorating. Don’t you feel the benefit of it after the 
exotic atmosphere of Mrs. Yandeleur’s study? Too 
much of that can’t be good for any one, either physi- 
cally or mentally ; and especially,” he added, glancing 
at her thin face and lustrous eyes — “ especially bad for 
you.” 

“ Why especially bad for me ?” 

“ Because I should think you are exceptionally sensi- 
tive, Miss Grahame. What you said just now proved 
that — I mean about those presentiments.” 

“ Are you exceptionally sensitive, then ?” she asked, 
forcing a little laugh. “For, as I understand, you have 
presentiments, too.” 

“ Perhaps I am,” he answered, slowly, “ where some 
people are concerned. I have an impression about you, 
h 10* 


114 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


Miss Grahame, which is very strong indeed, and about 
which I want to speak to you.” 

For a moment Laline’s heart seemed to stand still. 
Was he going to tell her that he had recognised her, 
and to show himself at last in his true colours ? 

“ Please don’t tell me !” she cried, sharply, with an 
unmistakable tremor in her voice. “ It is late, and I am 
going home. Good-afternoon, Mr. Armstrong!” 

“ Don’t go yet ! Just walk once more up the avenue.” 

“ I have not been very much about the world,” Laline 
said, icily, “ but I do not think it is customary for young 
ladies to walk about with strangers.” 

“ I am not a stranger !” he said, emphatically. “ Why 
do you look so startled, Miss Grahame? I can’t be- 
lieve that you and I met for the first time a week ago. 
If we did, why did you drop that crystal ball in con- 
sternation as soon as I entered the room, and why did I 
feel, as soon as I saw the lamplight on your face, that I 
had beheld it before? Only my recollection of you is 
as a child, with long bright hair waving about your 
shoulders, and ” 

“ Fancies — mere fancies !” she interrupted. “ Mine is 
not an unusual type of face in England.” 

“A most unusual type, I call it,” he rejoined, ear- 
nestly, “ and one that I am longing to commit to paper. 
My body, you must know, Miss Grahame, sits before a 
desk in a bank all day, but in my mind I am forever 
drawing and painting, committing lovely scenes and 
lovely faces very inadequately to canvas.” 

“ I remember,” she said, in constrained tones, “ that 
you first met Miss Cavan in a picture-gallery.” 

“ And I remember,” he returned, composedly, “ how 
like I thought her to a Paris Bordone. Miss Cavan’s 
colouring is very fine, and there is altogether a Yenetian 
opulence about her appearance. If you are at all in- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


115 


terested in pictures, you will see some very good ones 
when you come, as I hope you will, with Mrs. Yandeleur 
to my uncle’s house next week to tea.” 

“ Thank you,” she said, trying vainly to adopt an in- 
different “ society” tone. “ I am unfortunately engaged 
that day.” 

“ But no day was fixed,” he cried ; “ and it must be a 
day on which you are not engaged ! I am most anxious 
that you should know my uncle. You must, I think, be 
quite his ideal.” 

“ How can you possibly know,” she asked, “ what my 
character may be? You forget, Mr. Armstrong, that 
you know absolutely nothing about me.” 

“ It seems impossible,” he said, thoughtfully, “ and yet 
I suppose it is true, as facts go, and that I must have 
seen that face so like yours, with floating hair, in my 
dreams. But facts are the least important things in this 
world, Miss Grahame. It is only by reading between the 
lines of the facts of his life that we really know any man. 
A bare summary of events teaches us nothing. We live 
outside, or, rather, inside of what happens to us.” 

“Mow you are talking like Mrs. Yandeleur,” said 
Laline, interested in spite of herself. 

“ But don’t you agree with me ? Here are you and I, 
as far apart as two fixed stars, each within a little world 
wherein the other cannot hope to tread, except, perhaps, 
sometimes in dreams. To show you how little value 
facts have — I met you, as you say, a week ago for the 
first time ; you just spoke a few words, telling me Mrs. 
Yandeleur was out and would soon return. I spoke to 
you ; I don’t know what I talked about, for I was feel- 
ing your presence too deeply to be coherent even before 
I saw your face ; then a light was brought, and I learned 
your features by heart, every turn of every line of them, 
before you left the room. And, as I went out of the 


116 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


house, fully an hour later, I saw your face again, pressed 
against the window, watching me with something in 
your eyes that looked like dislike and fear. To-day I 
meet you for the second time, and you speak to me with 
coldness and dislike in every note of your voice. All 
that is not much to go upon — is it?” 

Although she hated and despised herself for it, her 
heart went out to him as her ear caught the ring of deep 
feeling in his voice. 

“ I don’t know what you mean i” she faltered, lamely. 

“ I mean that such an acquaintance as ours would 
seem short and slight as mere facts go. And yet the 
thought of you has never once left my mind since I 
parted from you, and the moment I close my eyes in 
sleep you dominate my dreams. You come to me, and 
in just the voice you speak in now, only less hard and 
cold, you tell me that something stands between us and 
prevents you from liking me ; and just as I am urging 
you to tell me what the barrier is, I awake, with my 
question unanswered.” 

“ I am really not responsible for your dreams, Mr. 
Armstrong.” 

“ Yet it is your influence which suggests them. Do 
you never dream yourself?” 

“ Yes ; but I attach no importance to such discon- 
nected nonsense as dreams always are !” she said, hastily, 
realising, to her intense discomfiture, that she was sud- 
denly growing crimson. 

“ But tell me,” he said, earnestly, “ just for curiosity, 
as I know that you are interested in all psychic studies, 
whether you ever dream of strangers whom you dislike 
— of me, for instance ?” 

“ It is beginning to snow,” said Laline, staring up in 
the sky and ignoring his question, “ and I have no um- 
brella.” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


117 


“ But I have. You must let me hold it over you.” 

And, almost before she guessed his intention, he had 
opened his umbrella and drawn her hand through his arm. 

“You can’t get wet now,” he said. 

“Would you like really to know what I think of 
you?” Laline asked, in a low and rather unsteady voice. 

“ Yes — even though I am sure it will hurt me !” 

“ I think,” she said, with much deliberation, “ that, in 
a very cruel and cowardly manner, you are taking ad- 
vantage of the fact that I am a friendless dependant to 
treat me with a flirting familiarity which you would not 
dare to show towards a lady whom you considered your 
equal !” 

He could feel that the hand on his arm was quivering, 
as was her whole frame, with excitement and anger. 

“ Is that what you think of me ?” he asked, quietly. 

“ It is. And, if you wish me to retain any respect for 
you, or ever to speak to you when I am forced to meet 
you in my employer’s house, you will leave me at once, 
Mr. Armstrong.” 

“ Surely not in the snow, without an umbrella ?” he 
suggested, still unmoved. 

She withdrew her hand sharply from his arm, biting 
her lips with vexation. 

“ I cannot run away from you,” she began. 

“ I should certainly run after you, and that would look 
absurd !” he put in. 

“I shall be compelled to speak about you to Mrs. 
Yandeleur,” Laline said, beginning to walk rapidly home- 
wards. 

“ I hope and intend to speak of you to Mrs. Yandeleur 
very shortly,” said Wallace Armstrong. 

She turned and stared at him in surprise. 

“ You mean to speak to Mrs. Yandeleur about me? I 
don’t understand you !” 


118 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ No ; you don’t in the least understand me, or you 
would never have spoken to me as you did just now ! 
If you will only be good and come under the umbrella 
again and take my arm, I will explain. Miss Grahame, 
I force my attentions and my society upon you, and be- 
have with what you call flirting familiarity, because I 
am not much used to courting, and it’s the only method 
I know. Finding you here alone was far too good a 
chance to miss, so you must forgive me if I have hurried 
the pace a little. It may be a very long time before I 
have such an opportunity again.” 

“ I have not the least notion of what you mean,” she 
said, haughtily. 

“ Then I will speak more plainly. I have fallen in 
love with you, Miss Grahame. It seems to me that I 
have been in love with you for years ; but, as you say 
that is impossible, I will only date it from last week. It 
was not only that I saw and spoke to you, but I heard 
your character described in a few words by Mrs. Yan- 
deleur, who, for all her touch of charlatanism, under- 
stands the natures of those about her. Shall I tell you 
her words? She said you were ‘a creature of perfect 
purity and truth, unsullied by thoughts of love or 
money.’ Thoughts of love would only sweeten, and not 
sully, such a character ; but let that pass. I love you, 
Miss Grahame, and I want in time to persuade you to 
love me. That is the explanation of what you call my 
cowardly and offensive conduct.” 

Laline stopped short in her walk and looked at him 
intently. It was past five o’clock, but the sky was 
lighter since the snowfall and she could see his face 
clearly, the broad forehead and straight nose, the square 
outline, firm jaw, and handsome mouth softened now 
into tenderness, the clear olive skin and crisply curling 
black hair. Every feature seemed refined and idealised 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


119 


from what she remembered of the man a few years 
before, at which time his mouth was hidden under a 
heavy moustache and his brow darkened by loosely-fall- 
ing hair. Only the eyes were the same in shape and 
colour, a clear blue, under the unusual setting of jet- 
black lashes and eyebrows; hut in Wallace Armstrong’s 
eyes, as they now met those of Laline’s, a soft light was 
shining, making them unlike any she had ever yet be- 
held. And, as she gazed, this proud and self-reliant 
maiden, who so much wished to convince herself that 
she could never forgive this man, experienced the most 
unaccountable desire to creep into his arms under the 
protecting umbrella and whisper in his ear that she was 
not in the least angry with him and was really his wife 
all the time. 

This sudden impulse Laline strongly combated. What 
right had this man, who knew himself to be married, to 
go about making love to unsuspecting girls ? she asked 
herself, steeling her heart against him and reminding 
herself that to Clare also he had in all probability made 
similar overtures. 

“ I will try to forget all the absurd things you have 
said, Mr. Armstrong,” she was beginning very gravely, 
when again he interrupted her. 

‘‘That is just what I don’t want you to do! I want 
you, on the contrary, to remember every word, and to 
think of me when you get home, and try to get used to 
the idea of me. Then when you come to tea next week 
at my uncle’s house ” 

“ I cannot come, as I told you, Mr. Armstrong. De- 
pendants are not in the habit of making social calls with 
their employers.” 

“If you so greatly resent being in a position of what 
you call dependance, surely you will not be unwilling to 
change it ?” he suggested. 


120 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


They were close to the gates at the corner of the 
Gardens now, and Laline held out her hand. 

“Good-bye!” she said. “I prefer to walk to the 
Crescent alone.” 

“Good-bye!” he said, and held her hand close in his. 
“ But I can’t quite let you go like this,” he added, depre- 
catingly, still retaining her hand. “ You haven’t even 
told me whether you mean to leave off disliking me.” 

“ I have told you before that I much object to that 
flirting manner!” she said, severely. 

“ And I have told you,” he retorted, “ that it’s the only 
manner I know — or that I dare employ !” he added, in a 
lower voice. 

“ If you wish to be a friend of mine ” 

“ I wish to be more than a friend.” 

“ Eeally, Mr. Armstrong, this is absurd ! Please let 
my hand go at once. I cannot stand here with you 
like ” 

“ Like lovers ?” 

“ Like two people in a Christmas number.” 

“ I can’t let you go until you promise to try and like 
me.” 

“ You tell me of your dreams and presentiments and 
fancies,” she said, with sudden fire ; “ perhaps I, too, 
have fanciful ideas about people, and in my mind may 
have just as much reason for disliking you as you have 
for liking me !” 

“Not liking — loving.” 

“Well, and not disliking — hating!” she cried, drawing 
her hand sharply away from his. 

“ I would rather you hated me than that you were in- 
different — extremes meet. You will come to my uncle’s, 
will you not, Miss Grahame ?” 

“ Extremes meet, but we need not !” she returned, with 
a sudden schoolgirl pertness, which made him burst out 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


121 


laughing. Before he had recovered his gravity she had 
dashed past him through the park gate, and in a few 
minutes’ time had arrived, breathless, before the doors, 
of 21, Queen Mary Crescent. 

Up to her own room she ran as soon as Susan opened 
the front door. 

“ I declare,” she exclaimed, as she saw her blushing 
face in the glass, “ I look like a jubilant nursemaid who 
has just parted from her ‘young man !’ And so I have, 
I suppose ; but the odd part of it is that I don’t seem to 
feel afraid of him now. I even have a sort of sneaking 
regard for him — almost a liking, it might be called, if I 
didn’t know what a fearfully bad man he is. He must 
be a marvellously clever actor, for he doesn’t look in the 
least cruel or callous, or like a forger or drunkard or 
bully. I remember I always thought that he was very 
handsome, and that he had the most beautiful blue eyes. 
I suppose he must have come right over to England 
when I disappeared, and persuaded his uncle to forgive 
him, and reformed. He half-recognised me as soon as 
he saw me ; but he doesn’t realise that growing up and 
putting my hair up have altered me just as shaving his 
moustache and having his hair cut have altered him. 
He must know the truth sooner or later, I suppose, and 
then — will he be glad or sorry, I wonder? How, of 
course, he makes love to any girl he pleases, knowing 
quite well that he is safely married, though nobody sus- 
pects it. But if I were to turn upon him in a majestic 
way and say, ‘ Sir, I am your wife already!’ he wouldn’t 
perhaps be quite so pleased. And, by-the-bye, in all his 
talk he never committed himself by mentioning mar- 
riage, which was very artful of him !” 


11 


122 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

In spite of Wallace Armstrong’s entreaties, Laline 
could not alter her arrangement not to make the ac- 
quaintance of Alexander Wallace; for when Mrs. Yan- 
deleur fixed upon the following Wednesday as the after- 
noon on which she would call at the bank, the young 
secretary had already announced to her employer her 
wish to remain at home. 

“ You are very right,” the little lady had observed, 
“ to avoid Mr. Armstrong if his society is uncongenial 
to you. Those strong instincts of liking and of hating 
are given to us women as safeguards. Although to my 
mind Mr. Armstrong is wholly sympathetic, if a secret 
voice tells you to beware of him, it is that of some benefi- 
cent spirit of the so-called dead, who see with fleshless 
eyes through the fleshly veil into the soul, and know 
that this man’s society would be in some way harmful 
to you.” 

Laline was growing accustomed by this time to Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s singular methods of expression. A strong 
liking had grown up between them, although the elder 
woman was hardly sufficiently human in her ways of 
thought to constitute a true friend. But Laline dared 
not confide in her, for many reasons, so she let her state- 
ments pass without comment. So far from cherishing any 
sentiment of repulsion against Wallace Armstrong, she 
could hardly keep her thoughts from dwelling on the 
subject of his tender speeches and tenderer eyes ; and it 
was only by constantly reminding herself of the mean 
and cowardly trick by which he had become her hus- 
band that she was enabled to preserve any lingering re- 
sentment against him. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


123 


On the Tuesday evening before Mrs. Vandeleur’s prom- 
ised visit to Mr. Wallace’s house Laline received the first 
approach to a love letter she had ever had despatched to 
her. Dinner was over, and she was engaged in writing 
in the study at Mrs. Yandeleur’s dictation, when the 
postman’s knock preluded the tap at the door of Susan 
and her entrance with a salver, upon which were two 
letters, one for the mistress of the house, and the other 
for Miss Lina Grahame. 

“ A letter for you, my child,” said the elder lady, peer- 
ing at the address through her eye-glass — “ the first you 
have received since your arrival.” 

Long before Laline had opened it or even glanced at 
the handwriting on the envelope, she knew that Wallace 
Armstrong was her correspondent, and felt herself blush- 
ing to the roots of her hair under Mrs. Yandeleur’s criti- 
cal scrutiny. 

“ Do you know the writing ?” the latter asked ; and 
Laline replied with perfect truth that she had never 
seen it before. 

“ My dear Miss Grahame,” the letter began — “ I am 
writing to entreat you to come with Mrs. Yandeleur to- 
morrow. Even if you don’t like me you would most 
certainly like my uncle, who is one of the noblest and 
best of men, generous and forgiving to a fault, and one 
who, in spite of his wealth, has suffered many deep and 
bitter trials in what to him has been far more important 
than money, his domestic affection. He is very old and 
very lonely, though with his chivalrous kindness towards 
all women he is the very man who should by rights be 
surrounded by a happy familj r circle. I owe everything 
to him, and can hardly with a lifelong devotion repay 
his more than fatherly goodness. I am sure that you 
are gentle and pitiful as you are beautiful — ‘ fair, kind, 


124 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


and true/ as Shakspere puts it. And, being all these 
things, won’t you come, Miss Grahame, and, by giving 
yourself just a little trouble, and putting up for an hour 
or more with the presence of some one you hate, confer 
a great pleasure upon one of the best old men alive ? I 
solemnly promise not to £ flirt/ as you call it. If I may 
not talk to you, I will console myself by talking of you 
to Mrs. Yandeleur, which is the next best thing. In my 
dream last night you promised to come. Be as sweet as 
your dream-prototype is the prayer of yours always 
devotedly, 

“Wallace L. Armstrong.” 

This letter moved and interested Laline deeply. Since 
it was now impossible for her to accompany Mrs. Yan- 
deleur and her niece, she felt that she must send a few 
words in answer, lest she might be thought too unfeel- 
ing. She was also very anxious to prevent Wallace from 
carrying out his threat of talking about her to Mrs. 
Yandeleur. The latter had guessed already that she 
was a married woman ; and might she not be capable of 
hinting as much to Mr. Armstrong under the mistaken 
impression that his attentions would be disagreeable to 
her secretary ? 

Lost in thought, Laline bent over the letter which lay 
on her lap, ignoring the steady, curious gaze of Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s keen, dark eyes. The fact that it was 
absolutely the first letter she had ever received from her 
husband excited her strangely, and she found herself 
fingering the paper with a touch that was almost affec- 
tionate. It seemed a little in the light of a confession 
that Wallace should expatiate so much upon his uncle’s 
generous and forgiving nature and fatherly goodness, 
and on his lonely life and domestic troubles. 

“ I believe — I want to believe that Wallace has utterly 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


125 


changed,” she said to herself, with flushed cheeks and 
moist eyes. “ If he were anything like the man he was 
four years and a half ago, when he entered into that 
horrible bargain with my father, he could never have 
written this letter. His uncle’s goodness must have 
changed him by gradually softening his heart. And 
then — my father was so much older that he may have 
led him into things, and Wallace was penniless — perhaps 
I have been too hard in my judgment on him all these 
years, although I am afraid if it were all to happen 
again I should act in just the same way.” 

“ Have you any letters to write, dear child ?” Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s silvery tones broke in. “ I shall be sending 
Susan to the post with mine within the next half- 
hour.” 

“ There is just one I want to write, if you please,” the 
secretary answered. 

And Mrs. Yandeleur obligingly made room for her at 
the other end of her writing-table. 

Laline took a pen between her fingers ; but the letter 
was not so easily written. There was very much she 
wished to tell Wallace Armstrong, and very much again 
that she did not want him to know. She wanted to tell 
him that she would willingly come to see his uncle, since 
he so much desired it, but that, having once refused, she 
did not see her way to changing her mind without ex- 
citing comment. She would also have liked him to know 
that she by no means hated him, that she might even in 
time be induced to like him very much, but that if he 
wished to please her he must refrain from talking about 
her to Mrs. Yandeleur. 

But she had no idea how to word her letter, and, even 
before writing it, she began to rack her brains in the 
vain endeavour to remember whether her husband pos- 
sessed or had ever seen any of her handwriting. 

11 * 


126 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


Finally, having wasted more than ten minutes, she 
seized her pen and began the heading, “ Dear Mr. Arm- 
strong,” hoping that other words would come. 

A little laugh, like that of a mischievous fairy, made 
her start and drop the pen. 

“‘Dear Mr. Armstrong,’ and nothing more?” Mrs. 
Yandeleur asked, mockingly. “ That is not a very fluent 
love-letter for the poor young gentleman, is it ?” 

Laline looked at once astonished and confused. But 
Mrs. Vandeleur’s prescience in this case was easily 
explained. She had recognised the writing on the en- 
velope of Wallace’s letter, and had watched Laline’s 
fingers tracing three words, which she guessed to be 
those she quoted. 

“You seem in a difficulty over your letter,” the little 
lady suggested, in an insinuating tone. “ Can I not help 
you in any way ? I have some judgment, and my advice 
may be of value to you. What is it you want to say to 
Mr. Armstrong ?” 

Laline arose, agitated and nervous, and, tearing her 
letter across, dropped it in the fire. 

“ It isn’t a bit necessary to send it at all,” she said ; “ and 
that is what made it difficult to write. I met Mr. Arm- 
strong in Kensington Gardens while you were out last 
Saturday afternoon, and I told him I did not wish to 
accompany you and Miss Cavan to tea at Mr. Alexander 
Wallace’s. But he took it into his head to want me to 
go, and wrote to especially ask me. I wanted to write 
and say I couldn’t change my mind — that is all.” 

“ You mean that is all you are going to tell me ?” 

“ I mean that is all that happened.” 

“ Does Clare know ?” 

“ Clare ? Oh, no ! Why should she ?” 

Mrs. Yandeleur shook her head. 

“ You know what I read in the cards about you yester- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


127 


day,” she said, mysteriously. “ You must beware of the 
evil done by a red-haired woman and a black haired man. 
Lina, tell me — is Wallace Armstrong in love with you?” 

“ How can he be when he has seen so little of me ?” 
she asked, parrying the question, and partly vexed, 
partly glad to talk upon the subject. 

Mrs. Yandeleur studied the girl’s face through her eye- 
glasses. There was something about it which she did 
not understand and which she mistrusted. It was not 
yet the tremulous softness of love she read in the girl’s 
lowered eyes and lips curved into a half-smile ; but there 
was about her a look suggesting that she was secretly 
happy and amused over some knowledge she did not 
mean to share with others. 

“You cannot love him, Lina,” Mrs. Yandeleur re- 
minded her, softly. “ You are not free.” 

“ No,” Laline repeated — and her half-smile deepened 
— “ I am not free. And now we won’t talk about him, 
will we, dear Mrs. Yandeleur? And I sha’n’t write the 
letter ; I shall just stop away.” 

“ Do you wish to go ?” 

Laline’s lips were framing “ No,” when she stopped. 

“ 1 hardly know,” she said, after a pause. “ But I 
think I should like to go.” 

“ I shall be strangely disappointed in you, Lina,” said 
Mrs. Yandeleur, coldly, “if you encourage Mr. Armstrong 
to love you solely for vanity’s sake.” 

The girl knelt down at Mrs. Yandeleur’ s feet and 
gazed earnestly up into her face. 

“Trust me, dear Mrs. Yandeleur,” she said, “for I 
shall never do that ! But — but I heard a good deal about 
Mr. Armstrong before I came to your house at all, and 
there is much more about him that I want to find out.” 

“ Does he know that you had any previous acquaint- 
ance with him ?” 


128 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ He has no idea of it.” 

“He doesn’t recognise you? That’s strange! Was 
he at all in love with you before ?” 

“ Oh, no !” the girl answered, with a very sad little 
smile. “ If he had been ” 

She did not finish her speech. In her own mind she 
was saying that, if Wallace Armstrong had indeed loved 
her at Boulogne, she would have been living by his side 
as his wife all these years in that very house to which 
she was bidden as a guest on the following day. 

“ Hoes Wallace Armstrong know your husband?” Mrs. 
Yandeleur asked, suddenly. 

The blood swept over Laline’s face as she answered, — 

“ Yes.” 

“ And you want to find out about him ?” pursued Mrs. 
Yandeleur. “Surely, if you detest and dread him so 
much, it would be wiser to restrain your curiosity.” 

“ I want also to learn, if I can, whether my father is 
alive.” 

Mrs. Yandeleur threw up her little hands and sighed. 

“ Like all women,” she murmured — “ hankering after 
chains and slavery after being once freed from them. 
Our work together should absorb you, to the exclusion 
of such thoughts. But you shall go with me to-morrow, 
if you like. I knew that Wallace Armstrong’s spirit was 
too fine to assimilate with that of Clare. Her destiny 
will lead her, late in life, to the arms of some stout and 
bald-headed stock-broker. When he is asleep, after din- 
ner, she will flirt with his clerks or his partner, and be 
very happy ; but you — life holds something very differ- 
ent in store for you. I suppose you must dree your 
weird. But remember, once you let love come into your 
life, trouble — terrible trouble — will come too !” 

Secretly, Mrs. Yandeleur was very curious to see 
Laline and Wallace together. She interested herself 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


129 


readily in other people’s affairs when these latter at- 
tracted her in any way — she liked to constitute herself a 
sort of deus ex machina in the lives of her friends, to pull 
the strings which moved their destinies ; and the fact that 
both Laline and Wallace, whom she sincerely admired, 
declined to confide in her wholly, piqued her curiosity 
the more. 

Against her niece Clare, on the other hand, Mrs. Yan- 
deleur entertained a sentiment which was almost dislike ; 
and she was annoyed to notice, on the following after- 
noon, when the two girls came down into the hall, ready 
dressed for their drive, that Clare, in a picturesque cos- 
tume of red-brown cloth and beaver fur, appeared far 
more strikingly handsome at first sight than Laline, in 
the quietest of blue serge gowns and small black felt 
hat. 

“ Why have you those horrid, plain, masculine clothes 
on ?” she inquired crossly of her secretary. 

“ They are my only walking things,” Laline replied. 
“You know, dear Mrs. Yandeleur, I can’t pay an after- 
noon call in those trailing white garments I wear in your 
room.” 

“Dear Lina would look like a ghost dropping into 
afternoon tea !” purred Clare, happy under the becoming 
framework of a red-brown velvet “ picture” hat and 
feathers. “ I think she looks so sweet and neat in that 
dear little black felt hat and black cloth jacket !” 

Mrs. Yandeleur snapped her glasses to and shut her 
mouth very hard. Then she ordered the girls into the 
brougham, and gave the coachman some order which 
they did not hear, but in consequence of which he drew 
up before a particularly smart millinery establishment 
on the way to the Strand. 

Here Mrs. Yandeleur insisted that Laline should get 
out with her while Clare remained in the carriage, to 
i 


130 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


which the little lady presently returned in triumph by 
the side of her secretary, in whose appearance a trans- 
formation had taken place by the substitution of a costly 
black velvet “picture” hat and graceful black velvet 
cape, trimmed with fur and lined with wine-coloured 
silk, for her former dowdy garments. 

A flash of genuine anger passed into Clare’s green 
eyes ; but she was far too much afraid of her aunt to 
enter a protest, and declared, with apparent enthusiasm, 
that “ dear Lina looked perfectly lovely ; but then she 
looked that before !” 

Wallace’s Bank was a vast gloomy-looking building, of 
which a considerable frontage faced the Strand. It was 
built in a square, with a paved courtyard in the middle, 
which led from one portion of the Bank to the other. 
Alexander Wallace possessed many commodious houses 
in different parts of London, and notably a charming 
family mansion and estate at Hampstead. But he hated 
change and he hated moving a little more every year. 
His father and his grandfather had lived over the Bank, 
and what was good enough for them was good enough 
for him. His tastes were very simple, and in his per- 
sonal expenses he was economical almost to miserliness ; 
but his kindness of heart and generosity in cases of real 
distress were well known. 

A sedate elderly man-servant opened the big doors 
which led into the private portion of the house, and the 
visitors found themselves in a small but very lofty hall, 
papered in old-fashioned unsesthetic drab, in which a fire 
was burning. Would the ladies mind coming up-stairs? 
the man asked, and proceeded to lead the way up several 
short flights of winding stairs and through a labyrinth 
of passages to a door, before which he paused. 

“These are Mr. Armstrong’s rooms,” he explained, 
and forthwith showed the ladies into a good-sized apart- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


131 


ment, distinguished by an appearance of extreme cosiness 
and bachelor comfort. The cheeriest of fires burned 
within the wide hearth, the furniture was of the saddle- 
bag order, roomy, and easy-giving, plush curtains drawn 
over the windows kept out all glimpse of the snowy 
night, and a multitude of clever water-colour sketches, 
chiefly of picturesque foreign scenery and of pretty girls, 
covered all the available wall space. 

On a round table, set unfashionably in the, centre of 
the room, a tempting array of cakes and sweets awaited 
the visitors ; and the two occupants of the room — Wal- 
lace Armstrong and his uncle Alexander Wallace — rose 
at the visitors’ entrance and advanced to greet them. 

Laline’s heart beat fast as she was formally introduced 
to the man who had long ago by letter welcomed her so 
warmly as a daughter. She felt she hardly dared to 
look up into his face lest he should read her secret in 
her eyes ; but when she did at last summon up sufficient 
courage to do so, she was struck by the extreme benev- 
olence of the old Scotchman’s regard. Light gray 
eyes, at once keen and kind, looked out from his pale 
and deeply-furrowed face, which possessed but little 
of his nephew’s beauty of outline. In spite of his 
great wealth, the banker’s manner towards the three 
ladies was constrained and even shy, but full of a gen- 
tleness and consideration which won the heart of 
Laline. 

“How kind a father he might have been to me all 
these years !” she thought. 


132 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


CHAP TEE XI Y. 

It seemed to Laline that Wallace Armstrong made no 
attempt to disguise the look of triumphant delight which 
spread over his face when she placed her hand in his. 

“ I was so afraid you wouldn’t come !” he murmured. 

“ I was much pleased to accept your kind invitation,” 
she returned, demurely, while Clare shot a quick glance 
of jealous inquiry from one to the other. 

Miss Cavan could not, however, complain that the com- 
panion whose presence she so much objected to en- 
deavoured in any way to outshine her in conversation. 
Laline scarcely spoke at all during tea, at which meal 
she presided behind the tea-urn, her manipulation of 
which filled Wallace with secret rapture. There was 
something so delightfully domestic in the sight of her 
slim wrists peeping from her neat blue-serge sleeves as 
she filled the cups, something so suggestive of honey- 
moon-breakfasts and little tete-a-tete meals on winter 
evenings, that it was as much as he could do to refrain 
from springing from his seat and proposing to her there 
and then, and prefacing his remarks with a kiss on each 
enchanting wrist. 

Old Mr. Wallace sat stroking his silver-gray beard 
and gazing with much satisfaction on the assembled 
guests after they had taken their place round the tea- 
table. At length he turned to Mrs. Yandeleur, and ad- 
dressed her in his usual slow tones, marked by a strong 
Scotch accent. 

“ I believe, madam,” he said, “ that I am very much 
behind the times. But I am an old man, and I live in a 
very old house and carry on a very old business, and 
that must be my excuse. My boy Wallace humours me ; 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


133 


he knows I like a table to be where I’m used to seeing 
it — in the middle of the room — and the chairs drawn up 
round it, and so he puts it there. And now 1 am won- 
dering whether the two charming young ladies you have 
brought with you to-day will humour me too ?” 

“ In what, Mr. Armstrong ?” 

“ Would they take off their hats while they are here ?” 
he asked, with a wistful eagerness which touched Laline 
deeply. “You see,” he added, apologetically, “this is 
not a fashionable call, and there are no fashionable people 
to meet you. And when I see young people about me 
without their hats it makes me feel for the time that 
they are not only visitors, but my own family.” 

Long before he had finished speaking Laline had re- 
moved her hat, much to Wallace’s delight, and had con- 
fided it to him to place on one side for her, thus enabling 
him to feast his eyes upon her white brow and soft hair, 
waving in Madonna-like fashion over her temples and 
across the tips of her little pink ears. 

“Have you no women-relations at all, then?” Mrs. 
Yandeleur inquired. 

Alexander Wallace sighed and shook his head. 

“Hone that 1 see now,” he answered. “ Of my twin- 
sisters, one, this boy’s mother, is dead, and the other has 
married for the second time and lives in South America. 
Of my two nieces — this boy’s sisters — one is dead, and the 
other married a German baron and lives with him in the 
Black Forest. I never see any of them. Once, more 
than four years ago, I expected a daughter to come into 
my house as my nephew’s wife, a gentle and beautiful 
young girl, whom I longed to welcome to my heart. But 
it was not to be.” 

“ Don’t speak of that now, Uncle Alec,” put in Wallace, 
quickly, throwing an uneasy glance in the direction of his 
guests ; “ it only makes you unhappy to recall that time !” 

12 


134 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


Laline watched both men with a fluttering heart. It 
was quite clear that Wallace wished to keep his uncle 
from the topic of the niece who never arrived, and as 
patent that the old gentleman was anxious to prose 
on the subject to sympathetic feminine listeners. The 
younger man at once strove to create a diversion by 
drawing Mrs. Yandeleur’s attention to his sketches on 
the walls of the room; but old Mr. Wallace, who was 
very obstinate, returned to his former subject before the 
little lady had had time to express an opinion. 

“ This boy thinks of nothing but art and society, spelt 
with capital letters, you must know, Mrs. Yandeleur!” 
he broke in, testily. “ I am fond of good pictures my- 
self; but pictures won’t fill an empty house with sun- 
shine and laughter. That is what this house wants — 
young voices, music, and pattering feet to drive the 
ghosts away. My niece Laline would have been twenty- 
one by this time. I had prepared one entire floor for 
her at the Hampstead house, as well as three rooms 
here on the floor below this. Just what I thought a 
very young newly-married woman would like I put 
there — the newest novels, and fresh flowers, and pretty 
hangings, and cut-glass scent-bottles, and plenty of look- 
ing-glasses — all pretty girls like looking-glasses, and 
plain ones, too, for the matter of that. And I bought a 
canary for her, and a white Persian kitten, and a King 
Charles spaniel ; that was the popular dog that year,, 
and I know girls like pets and prefer them to be in the 
fashion. Then, when everything was prepared, and I 
was counting the hours until my nephew brought home 
his wife, I received a telegram to say that at the moment 
of starting she had been seized with typhoid fever and 
was already dangerously ill.” 

“How terribly sad!” ejaculated Mrs. Yandeleur, po- 
litely, while Clare yawned furtively, and Laline kept 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


135 


her eyes fixed on her plate lest they might betray 
her. 

“ You are making Mrs. Yandeleur quite miserable, 
Uncle Alec,” put in Wallace, his black brows contracting 
into an impatient frown. 

“ My boy,” observed his uncle, doggedly, “ I am telling 
a story and I have not yet finished. As you know the 
end and do not appear to want to hear it again, I should 
advise you to make a tour of the room with the young 
ladies and show them your sketches I’ 

Clare rose with alacrity; but Laline declared that she 
preferred to listen to Mr. Wallace ; so, much against his 
will, Mr. Armstrong had to pair off with Miss Cavan. 
Laline could see clearly how he tried to catch his uncle’s 
words, even while con ducting Clare round the walls and 
explaining to her his various drawings ; but her interest 
was so centred in the story told by old Mr. Wallace that 
she had little attention to spare for his nephew. 

“ Constant telegrams were sent to me,” the old gentle- 
man proceeded, in great satisfaction at securing so ab- 
sorbed a listener as Laline, “ and I was making arrange- 
ments for going over to see for myself that the poor 
girl had the best of nursing, when I received a message 
telling me that my niece had succumbed to the disease 
and was already dead. Only seventeen, and a bride of a 
few weeks ! It was indeed a cruel blow ! But the part that 
especially grieved me, and of which I never think without 
the keenest self-reproach, is that when my nephew first 
arrived in Europe from the Colonies he was in dire 
straits for money and too proud to apply to me. His 
poor little bride had relatives in the town of Boulogne, 
and thither they made their way ; but these relations 
were extremely poor and could do little for them. One 
of them, a Captain Garth, wrote me a most touching 
letter after the poor child’s death — which I fear was 


136 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


hastened by the privations she had undergone — in which 
he detailed her last moments and her pitiful disappoint- 
ment at not being able to see her beautiful English home. 
Poor little Laline ! No one mourned her more sincerely 
than I. Her rooms in this house and at Hampstead have 
never been used since that time, and never will be until 
my nephew marries.” 

1 ‘You wish him to marry, then ?” Mrs. Yandeleur sug- 
gested. 

“ Most earnestly I do. But, though I have nothing to 
complain of about him, and he is making amends to me 
in every way for the terrible trouble I have had, he 
seems strangely averse to settling down, and talks a 
great deal about failing to meet his ideal, and not being 
able to put up with any one else, and so on. Young men 
nowadays are too fond of talking about themselves and 
their feelings ; and this boy is so popular, and gets in- 
vited out so much, that in the multitudes of fresh pretty 
faces he is constantly meeting he is in danger, I fear, of 
frittering his time away. Boating-parties in summer, 
perpetual racing and punting, riding, tennis, and golf, 
and in the winter balls and skating-parties — his time is 
so filled up that he doesn’t have a moment left for love- 
making. With all that, he’s an excellent man of busi- 
ness and invaluable to me at the Bank. Oh, I have 
nothing to complain of about the boy !” 

To Laline’s sensitive ears there was something a little 
disparaging in Alexander Wallace’s praise of his nephew, 
some note which almost suggested that he regretted not 
being able to find fault with him. Eor her own part, 
the knowledge of her husband’s deceitful treachery 
towards his over-indulgent uncle filled her with disgust, 
and she had been hardly able to restrain her indignation 
when Alexander Wallace alluded to Captain Garth’s 
“pathetic letter” containing his “niece” Laline’s last 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


137 


words. Unable to account for her disappearance, and 
unwilling to give themselves the trouble of searching 
for her, it was clear to Ualine that her father and her 
husband had invented the story of her seizure and death 
by typhoid fever in order to extract further sympathy 
and further funds from the kind and credulous old 
banker, and she grew hot with shame to think that she 
should have almost allowed herself to pardon and to 
like a man so mercenary and deceitful as Wallace Arm- 
strong must be. 

“Would you like to look over the house, Miss Gra- 
hame? There are some rather interesting rooms, one 
especially, in which a great ball was given on the very 
day when that prodigious swindle, the South Sea Bubble, 
burst. It is called the ‘ South Sea Boom,’ and has a 
wonderful Chinese paper; I think it would interest 
you.” 

It was her husband’s voice, and a little shiver of re- 
pulsion passed through Laline at the sound. Neverthe- 
less she rose, and Alexander Wallace rose also. Adams, 
the discreet-looking man-servant, was summoned with 
his key, and the tour of the old house began. 

Clare Cavan was inquisitive. Moreover, she fully 
intended, if that were possible, installing herself as mis- 
tress in this gloomy old mansion at some future date. 
She therefore peered and peeped about her, noting the 
size and number of the rooms, and perpetually asking 
questions in what seemed like overflowing girlish vi- 
vacity. Mr. Armstrong’s suite of apartments comprised 
the sitting-room, in which tea had been served, a bed- 
room and dressing-room adjoining, and up another flight 
of stairs, a spacious studio, lighted entirely from above, 
and containing casts, clay models, canvases, easels, and 
innumerable sketches placed along the dado of the 
room, the walls of which were painted Indian-red. To 

12 * 


138 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


this room, at Clare’s urgent request, Wallace conducted 
the two girls, passing, as he did so, the closed door of 
another attic of equal dimensions. 

“Is this another studio of yours?” Clare inquired, 
stopping before the closed door. 

“It is a disused lumber-room,” Wallace answered, 
“ and kept locked, as you see,” he added, shaking the 
handle of the door before leading the way into his studio 
adjoining. 

Clare lingered behind the other two and bent to ex- 
amine the keyhole. 

“ It may be locked,” she said to herself, “ but the key 
is on the inside. I wonder why Mr. Armstrong tried to 
deceive me ? Is it some pretty model he is keeping here 
on the sly ?” 

Eesolved to settle this point to her own satisfaction so 
soon as an opportunity should arise, Clare followed the 
others into the studio, and affected great admiration of 
Wallace’s sketches, which were in truth far too fanciful 
and unconventional to arouse her interest. 

“ This is where my heart is,” he said to Laline on her 
first introduction to the studio ; “ or, rather” — glancing 
quickly round and perceiving that Clare had not yet 
joined them — “ this is where it was.” 

Laline glanced at him coldly and turned to examine 
some drawings. Nothing, she told herself, should ever 
induce her to forgive him ; but his pictures interested 
her, and especially a pencil sketch, as yet uncompleted, 
of extreme delicacy and beauty, entitled “ Evelyn 
Hope.” 

The figure of the dead girl, exquisitely youthful and 
pure in outline, lay stretched upon the bed, touched and 
glorified by two long rays of light that stole through the 
hinges of the close shutters. A dark-haired young man 
sat, with face averted from the spectator, gazing intently 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


139 


at the still white figure, into whose hand he was gently 
thrusting a single geranium leaf. 

“ ‘ So hush — I will give you this leaf to keep I 
See — I shut it inside the sweet cold hand I 
There — that is our secret ; go to sleep. 

You will wake and rememher and understand.’ ” 

Wallace came behind Laline as she stood before the 
easel examining the picture, and softly quoted Brown- 
ing’s lines, which she had never heard before, and 
which touched her with a keen delight. 

“ I should like to read you the entire poem,” he said. 

“ But who did you take for your heroine — I mean, who 
sat for it ?” 

“ No one. It was a memory. I did it on my return 
from that walk in Kensington Gardens.” 

He spoke very low, so as not to be heard by Clare, 
who was at the farther end of the room turning over 
some sketches in a portfolio against the wall. Laline 
had already recognised her own profile in “Evelyn 
Hope,” and was not ill-pleased by the dreamy loveliness 
which characterised the drawing. 

She learned that Wallace frequently exhibited at the 
minor picture-shows, and, further, that he was a regular 
contributor of black-and-white drawings to more than 
one English and American magazine. 

“You see I can’t give the work the time I would 
like,” he explained, “ though luckily banking hours are 
not onerous. I sit down-stairs from ten until four, with 
a calculating-machine clicking away in my brain j but in 
the early summer mornings or the long winter evenings 
I bring my heart and mind up here.” 

At this point Clare, tired of a conversation which was 
no longer specially addressed to her, suggested a move 
to the South Sea Boom, which she declared herself 


140 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ dying to see and to the first floor they forthwith 
descended to a vast apartment, with floor of shining 
polished oak and an immense mantelpiece in carved and 
coloured marble, an apartment in which the electric- 
light, shining down from bosses in the elaborately-carved 
ceiling, seemed a glaring anachronism, and in which a 
few old-fashioned chairs and sofas, covered with moth- 
eaten brocade and set in far corners of the room, sug- 
gested ghostly dowagers and wall-flowers silently watch- 
ing a rustling fleshless ball. 

Mrs. Yandeleur was delighted, and went about with 
upraised eye-glasses, “sniffling the air for ghosts,” as 
Clare irreverently whispered to Wallace Armstrong. 

“You have done your very worst,” the little lady 
observed with much severity to old Alexander, “with 
your odious glaring electric-light. And, as I perceive, 
some Yandal forefather of yours has gilded and whitened 
over all the lovely woodwork of the ceiling! As to 
your dreadful Chinese wall-paper, sticky with varnish 
and most inartistic and patchy in effect, I haven’t a 
doubt that it is plastered all over the original beautiful 
oak-panelled walls, and that the spirits of the malevolent 
little pigtailed horrors who designed and executed it 
have driven away all the dear, charming, picturesque 
people in patches and powder and stiff brocade who 
used to congregate here a hundred years ago. I declare 
I can hardly hear a rustle of their silk petticoats or a 
tap of their high-heeled shoes !” 

“ If you hear as much as that, madam, you are cleverer 
than I,” said the old Scotchman, drily. 

“If I had my way with this room,” pursued Mrs. 
Yandeleur, “ I’d have all the paper and all the paint and 
varnish off, and take down your nasty electric-light and 
substitute wax candles. And I would have an old spinet 
in the corner and play it softly in the evenings, until I 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


141 


had reconstituted the entire scene. As it is, it hurts me 
to see a place so desecrated. Is there no corner in the 
entire house left sacred for the poor spirits to come back 
to and feel themselves at home ?” 

But here Adams, who had been listening, equally 
scared and scandalised, interposed to suggest that if the 
lady liked old things she might admire the banqueting- 
hall, which had never yet been “properly restored;” and 
thither he led the way, followed by Mrs. Yandeleur, still 
intent upon demonstrating to the old Scotchman his 
enormities and that of his predecessors in the arrange- 
ment of the old rooms. 

Laline, who had been examining with interest the odd 
designs upon the walls, turned to follow her employer ; 
but Clare had already gone out, and Wallace detained 
her as she tried to pass him. 

“ Don’t go yet !” he whispered, quickly. “ I must 
speak to you. Why are you so cold to me again to- 
day?” 

“ Monsense, Mr. Armstrong ! Remember, we are 
strangers.” 

“We are not! Reel my heart!” — and, suddenly seiz- 
ing her hand, he pressed it against his heart, so that she 
felt its quick strong throbs. “ Could a stranger make 

my heart beat like this ? Miss Grahame — Lina Oh, 

I don’t mind if you are angry ! You are Lina to me in 
my thoughts and dreams. Lina, why do you try so 
hard to hate me ? For you are trying ; I can see it in 
your eyes, which seek mine until you hastily avert 
them ; I can feel it in your hand, which half returns 
my pressure before you snatch your fingers from me. 
Lina, why do you try to steel your heart against me ? 
What have I done, dear, that you should refuse to follow 
your heart and love me as I love you ?” 


142 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


CHAPTER XT. 

A sudden rage seized Laline against both Wallace and 
herself. She hated herself for tolerating and even liking 
him, and she hated him for what she regarded as his 
unparalleled duplicity. 

“ You are asking me a great many questions I” she 
said, turning a white, angry face upon him. “How I 
want to question you ! Tell me, if you have the slight- 
est regard for truth — do you know of no tie, no respon- 
sibility, which should prevent you from making love to 
me?” 

“ What do you mean ?” he asked, falling back a step 
and speaking in low troubled tones, quite unlike the pas- 
sionate accents of his first love-avowal. 

“You answer my question by asking another!” she 
exclaimed, stamping her foot impatiently. “ What I 
want you to tell me is this — is there nothing and no one 
to stand between us — no barrier which should keep you 
and me apart ?” 

The flush of excitement faded from his dark face, 
which in a moment seemed to age and grow stern and 
sad. For the first time he averted his eyes from hers. 

“ What have you heard ?” he asked, abruptly. 

“ Tell me the truth,” she said, “ and then I will tell 
you whether it is what I have heard.” 

He looked at her doubtfully. 

“ It is for you to decide,” he said at last, in a very low 
voice. “ If what you have learned about a tie, a respon- 
sibility, which I undertook more than four years ago, is 
sufficient to part us, I must bow to your decision. I 
cannot undo what I have done.” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 143 

“ You are not free !” she whispered, as he turned 
away. 

“ I am free to love you !” he cried, suddenly clasping 
her hands in his and drawing them up against his heart 
again. “ Lina, we can’t talk here, and I can see that we 
have both much to say. On Saturday your time is your 
own, is it not? Well, Saturday next I will come to you 
so soon as you are free. What time shall it be ? Two 
o’clock or half-past two ? Fix the time, or I shall burst 
in before you have finished luncheon !” 

“ You cannot come to the house for me,” exclaimed 
Laline — “ it is out of the question ! What do you im- 
agine you could say to Mrs. Yandeleur and her niece to 
explain such conduct — ‘ If you please, ma’am, I under- 
stand it’s your secretary’s afternoon out, and I’ve come 
to take her out walking?’ Do you really suppose that 
earning one’s living quite destroys one’s sense of what is 
due to the position of a lady ?” 

“ Don’t be angry, Lina,” he was beginning, when she 
cut him short again. 

“ I will not permit you to call me by my Christian 
name, Mr. Armstrong !” 

“ As you like. At what time shall I call for you on 
Saturday ?” 

“ Call for me ? It is out of the question ! I would 
not for the world let Mrs. Yandeleur know of your silly 
conduct !” 

“ Well, we’ll keep her in the dark at present, if you 
wish it, although I would far rather go direct to her and 
tell her I fell in love with you at first sight. I feel sure 
she’d sympathise. I’ll be waiting, then, just by the little 
gate that leads into the Gardens — the gate by which we 
came out last time. At two o’clock I will be there; and, 
if you are not there by the half-hour, I will go to the 
house and ask for you.” 


144 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ This is persecution ” 

“No — it is love! Lina, I hear footsteps on the stairs. 
There is no real barrier between us. In another moment 
we shall be interrupted. Kiss me, dear — just once 
first!” 

“ Mr. Armstrong, you are insulting !” 

He bent his handsome, eager, dark face close down 
towards her own ; and that ill-regulated little heart of 
hers began to tremble and flutter as though this man 
were not a heartless deceiver and an utterly worthless 
person. 

After all he was her husband, and kissing one’s hus- 
band is not considered a crime ; added to which, she was 
almost afraid she loved him a little. Half insensibly 
her head inclined towards his, and in another moment 
their lips would have met, when Clare Cavan darted at 
astonishing speed into the room, and stood before them, 
wide-eyed and panting, her brilliant flesh-tints changed 
for a chalky pallor, and abject fear clearly marked in 
every line of her face. 

“ I’ve had a fright !” she faltered. “ I — I wanted to 
have another look at those lovely sketches of yours, Mr. 
Armstrong ; so I stole up -stairs to the top floor by my- 
self, and — somehow I had forgotten — and I opened the 
wrong door !” 

“The wrong door?” Wallace repeated, with a clearly 
startled expression in his eyes. “Do you mean that 
you went into the lumber-room? Wasn’t the door 
locked ?” 

“ Yes — no — that is to say, I fell over a box or some- 
thing near the door, and slipped and hurt myself in the 
dark ! And, being very absurdly nervous, it gave mo 
such a shock !” 

Laline glanced at Clare and then at Mr. Armstrong. It 
was clear that Clare was lying, and equally clear that 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


145 


he knew it. There was nothing for him to do, however, 
but to express his regret at her accident, and to suggest 
that a glass of wine or a little brandy might assist in 
restoring her nerves — a proposition to which Clare as- 
sented without much protest ; and the three proceeded 
to the dining-room together. 

Here they found Mrs. Yandeleur inspecting the choicest 
curiosity of the bank — a centenarian clerk, who had been 
employed there for over eighty-five years, and who in- 
variably alluded to his septuagenarian employer as 
“ Master Alec.’ 1 

“ I’ve been here, man and boy, for nigh on eighty-six 
years,” he was piping, as Wallace and the young ladies 
entered, “and disgrace has only once come upon the 
bank since I entered it 1 That was Master Wallace, to be 
sure Oh, he’s quiet enough now — butter wouldn’t melt 
in his mouth ! But he’s a rank bad ’un — a rank bad ’un ; 
and so I’ve always told Master Alec I Hever trust him 
is what I’ve always said. Wine or whiskey, women or 
money, he can’t resist any of ’em, for all he looks so 
quiet. He’s a bad man, sir — a bad man is Wallace Arm- 
strong !” 

Laline heard every word, and turned to look at Wal- 
lace. He flushed and lowered his eyes under her in- 
quiring gaze. Presently, drawing her apart, he confided 
to her in a whisper that old Farquharson was “ quite 
off his head, and hadn’t a notion what he was talking 
about.” 

A little later the ladies left, after being pressed by old 
Mr. Wallace to fix an early date for another visit, and 
drove home through the snow-covered streets in the 
early gloom of a winter’s evening. 

Clare was unusually quiet on the return journey ; and 
it was only after the girls had retired to their rooms 
that night that she crept into Laline’s room, looking 
a k lo 


146 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


very ghostly in her loose white flannel dressing-gown, 
with her long reddish-gold hair falling about her 
shoulders. 

“ Aren’t you longing to know about my ghost-fright 
this evening ?” she asked. " Of course I didn’t tell Mr. 
Armstrong the truth. The fact is he’s got some one in 
that other room he’s keeping quiet — some one who rushed 
out at me in the dark with a sort of curse, and threw 
me out of the room. It was a woman, of course, and I 
suppose she was jealous, and that would account for her 
savagery.” 

“ Clare,” exclaimed Laline, “ are you inventing this ? 
How can I tell that you are speaking the truth now ?” 

For answer Clare slipped off her dressing-grown, and, 
pushing up the sleeve of her night-dress, displayed four 
black bruises, as of finger-marks, on the dazzling white- 
ness of her shoulder. 

Laline uttered an exclamation of dismay. 

“ Clare, why didn’t you tell Mr. Armstrong ?” 

“ I don’t think ho would much have relished that 1” 
Clare answered, with a disagreeable smile. “ I am afraid, 
Laline, that he is a dreadfully bad lot — too bad even for 
me! There were lots of little things I noticed. For 
one, that the keys of the wine and of the spirits also 
were kept in old Mr. "Wallace’s possession. He doesn’t 
even trust his nephew with a bottle of wine ; for, when 
the sideboard was opened in the sitting-room, where we 
had tea, I particularly noticed that there were no bottles 
there. That might not mean anything if I hadn’t heard 
that Mr. Armstrong drinks terribly at times. I think 
that must be the reason for that sort of sad saturnine 
look he gets in his eyes sometimes. I’ve noticed it before 
in people who drink. And then you know what old 
Farquharson said about him, and he ought to know.” 

“ He’s so old that I think he’s lost his wits,” said La- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE 


147 


line. u Anyhow, it's rather hard to suppose a man is a 
drunkard simply because there are no bottles about his 
rooms/’ 

“ Why, I thought you didn’t like Mr. Armstrong,” 
Clare exclaimed, innocently, “ and here you are defend- 
ing him! This is a change indeed! Was he so very 
agreeable to-day as to destroy your old prejudice, or 
did the sight of the house and the banking business 
soften your hard heart towards him ?” 

There was no mistaking the unkindness of the sneer 
in this instance. Clare was indeed so profoundly jealous 
at the kind of understanding which she thought she 
had detected between Laline and Wallace during the 
latter part of the afternoon that her ordinary sweetness 
of manner was for the time forgotten. But Laline was 
in no mood for quarrelling. She wanted to be left alone 
with her thoughts and plans ; so she contented herself 
with observing that Mr. Armstrong certainly improved 
on acquaintance, but that he appeared to have acquired, 
rightly or wrongly, a bad reputation. Then she yawned, 
and asked Clare to put out the candle before she left the 
room, upon which hint to retire Miss Cavan in consider- 
able indignation acted. 

All through Thursday and Friday and the morning of 
Saturday, Laline was "going over in her mind the con- 
versation she meant to have with Wallace Armstrong 
when she joined him at the gate of the Gardens that 
afternoon. 

Concerning the lumber-room incident, she hardly felt 
justified in questioning him, so little reliance did she 
place upon Clare’s statements. There was no doubt that 
Miss Cavan had been violently ejected from a room which 
Wallace had declared to be empty j but even now Laline’s 
keen susceptibilities taught her that Clare was conceal- 
ing something. As to the rumour concerning W allace’s 


148 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


occasional excesses, that was to Laline a far more seri- 
ous matter. Long ago Captain Garth had styled him a 
drunkard, and Laline well remembered the copious and 
constant draughts of cognac in which her husband had 
indulged at Boulogne. But of these excesses there 
seemed no trace in Wallace’s present manner. Save for 
the sudden infatuation he had conceived for her, and for 
an occasionally dreamy and fanciful habit of speech, 
there was nothing about him to suggest that he was not 
the sanest and most well-conducted of athletic and art- 
loving young English gentlemen. 

The more she thought about Wallace the less she un- 
derstood him ; and what puzzled her most of all was 
that, while he admitted the fact of a responsibility he 
had incurred more than four years ago, he should still 
continue to pay her his addresses, without apparently 
ever troubling his head with the consideration that he 
was a married man. 

Saturday dawned in clear cold sunshine, an ideal 
winter’s day. Most fortunately for Laline, Clare was 
engaged to lunch at a friend’s house, and afterwards to 
accompany a skating-party on the Long Water. Mrs. 
Yandeleur was absent-minded and absorbed in taking 
notes to be used at an interview with a very celebrated 
American spiritualist who was to visit her that after- 
noon, and by two o’clock there was nothing in the world 
to prevent Laline from walking out of the house to fulfil 
her appointment. 

For the first time in her life she felt inclined to linger 
before her looking-glass, arranging and rearranging the 
set of her new hat, wondering whether she would look 
prettier with a regular curled fringe instead of the nat- 
ural waves of hair which shaded her brow, taking 
her veil on and off because she was not quite sure that 
it suited her, desperately anxious to look her best, and 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


149 


wholly dissatisfied with her appearance, in spite of the 
fact that she had never in her life looked half so hand- 
some as she did now, with a bright light of excitement 
in her hazel eyes and the pink colour coming and going 
in her cheeks. 

So beautiful indeed did she appear to the love-stricken 
Wallace, waiting for her by the gate, as arranged, that 
the sight of her almost took his breath away. 

“ By Jove, you are lovely 1” he exclaimed, half under 
his breath, like a school boy. 

“ That sounds genuine, at any rate !” she said, laugh- 
ing. “ But, please, Mr. Armstrong, don’t stand staring 
at me like that. Since you began by being personal, I 
will follow suit and say what a lovely fur-lined coat you 
have 1 It is so gorgeous that you look quite like a duke !” 

“ Or an actor,” he suggested, laughing. “ Actors are 
very partial to fur-lined coats, and being clean shaved 
makes me look still more like one.” 

“ You used to wear a moustache ?” she said, more as a 
statement than a question. 

“ Yes ; but it was such a bad one that I abolished it. 
The reason for this coat is that I thought it might be 
cold driving.” 

“Driving?” she repeated, in surprise. 

“ Yes. Don’t you see my cart waiting ? I’ve brought 
a warm fur rug for you ; but I’m afraid you’ll be cold 
about the shoulders. It’s only a few minutes past two, 
however, and we shall be able to buy a cape or a boa or 
something in one of the shops in the High Street.” 

Stepping up to the groom, who was driving a hand- 
some bay mare in the neatest of dog-carts, Wallace 
directed him to follow while he turned back with Laline 
in the direction of the shops. 

“ You must choose it yourself,” he explained to Laline. 
“ Something very warm in fur.” 

13 * 


150 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“What are you thinking of ?” she exclaimed. “You 
cannot for one moment suppose that I would accept 
valuable presents from a stranger ?” 

She had stopped in her walk, and he stopped, too, and 
looked down for a moment into her face, his blue eyes 
shining with a soft light, the sight of which brought 
sudden blushes to her cheek. 

“ I had forgotten,” he said. “ There is something else 
we must buy first.” 

In an instant she knew what he meant. Had she not 
been through the same experience with him before, years 
ago ? She could almost have laughed aloud as he hurried 
her into a jeweller’s shop, and they stood together before 
the counter while Wallace asked again, as he had done 
in Boulogne, to be shown some engagement-rings, “ to 
fit this lady’s finger.” 

The man’s half-smile was just the same as it had been 
years ago. Surely some faint recollection of that former 
scene would come back to Wallace now, as he stood by 
her side and gently drew off her glove, just as he had 
done before, to try the rings ! 

“Which one do you like best?” he asked; and, break- 
ing into a hysterical laugh, Laline declared that she 
must have “a turquoise heart surrounded by small 
diamonds.” 

“ The price will be one hundred francs,” she said, and 
almost expected that Wallace would at once proceed to 
purchase, as before, the wedding-ring as well. 

But he did not do so. He only looked rather sur- 
prised, and inquired of the jeweller whether he had a 
ring of the description given. The man answered in 
the negative ; and Laline, blushing and confused, allowed 
a moonstone-and-diamond heart and lovers’-knot to be 
slipped on her finger, and declared herself to be perfectly 
satisfied with it. The price this time was twenty guineas 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


151 


instead of one hundred francs ; and, being now for the 
second time formally engaged to her husband, as she 
expressed it in her thoughts, Mrs. Wallace Armstrong 
left the shop with him. 

She was still so overwhelmed by the way in which her 
little outburst had fallen flat that she behaved with 
great docility, and hardly uttered a protest as Wallace 
took her into a fashionable millinery establishment and 
purchased for her a deep sable collar, which he at once 
proceeded to fasten round her neck over her velvet 
cape. 

“Mow you will be safe from cold,” he said, trium- 
phantly. “As soon as my dear old uncle heard that to- 
day I was coming courting, he simply lined my pockets 
with bank-notes.” 

“ Did you tell him ?” 

“ Of course I did ! And he was in a state of the 
highest delight. ‘Mot the red-haired one, I hope — I 
didn’t like her mouth,’ was his only objection. When 
he heard that it was you I was in love with, it was all I 
could do to prevent him from coming with me to plead 
my cause.” 

“ You seem to have been very confident,” observes La- 
line, “ and very sure of winning my consent.” 

“ I knew I should get it sooner or later by dint of 
asking,” he answered, as he helped her into the dog-cart 
and carefully wrapped a fur rug round her knees. “ Ever 
since I saw the lamplight shine on your face that first 
evening at Mrs. Yandeleur’s I knew that I should never 
have a moment’s peace until I had made you my wife.” 

“ You have never even asked me to marry you J” said 
Laline, her spirits rising under the strangeness of her 
surroundings. “ You have only met me four times, and 
have talked a lot of sentiment and abstract love-making ; 
then to-day, before I had time to think, you dragged mo 


152 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


into a jeweller’s shop and bought me a ring. But you 
have never proposed to me, and I have never accepted 
you. Consequently we cannot bo engaged.” 

“ Lina Grahame,” he said, bending his head to look in 
her face as he took his seat by her side, “ will you be my 
wife ?” 

“ W allace Armstrong,” she returned, in quick staccato 
utterance, “ what has become of Laline Garth ?” 


CHAPTER XYI. 

As soon as the words “Wallace Armstrong, what has 
become of Laline Garth?” had left her lips, Laline’s 
heart sank within her. On Wallace’s answer very much 
depended. And at first he did not answer, but only 
drew his level black brows near together and stared 
straight before him at his horse’s head. 

“ I cannot imagine,” he said at length, after a pause 
which seemed interminable to the girl by his side, “ why 
you ask me that now. It is such a sad and painful 
subject, and I meant to-day to be so happy. What is 
the use of trying to revive a dead past ?” 

“ Do you never think of it ?” she asked. 

“Never, if I can help it ! I suppose you heard the 
whole affair from my uncle ? Whether you blame me or 
not, I don’t see that I could have acted otherwise.” 

“ And you never think of her ?” 

“ Never 1” he answered, calmly. “Why should I? 
The poor child is long ago dead.” 

« Dead?” 

“ Yes. Surely my uncle told you that ?” 

“Yes — no — I don’t remember. How do you know 
that she is dead ?” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


153 


“ I saw her grave. Why, how white you are, and how 
excited you seem ! Why do you take such a strange in- 
terest in the girl ?” 

“ I — I am sorry for her,” faltered Laline. 

She could not understand it. Was it some trick of 
her father’s, she wondered — and did Wallace really be- 
lieve her to bo dead ? 

“ What became of that Captain Garth who wrote the 
letter to your uncle ?” she inquired, suddenly. 

u Oh, that old sinner ? Ho died of apoplexy two 
years ago, having enjoyed a handsome annuity from my 
soft-hearted uncle on the strength of the poor girl Laline 
having been his niece. But, dearest, if you knew how 
much I hate the subject, you would not, I am sure, com- 
pel me to discuss it.” 

“ I will say no more about it now,” she observed, 
quietly. 

In spite of the quick drive through the keen air she 
was vety pale. His news had strangely affected her, and 
the certainty that her father was dead moved her deeply. 
She tried to remember all that was good about him, and 
recalled on the instant many little acts of careless kind- 
ness which until then she had forgotten. All the Bou- 
logne life came before her again in its sordid daily de- 
tails, and she saw herself as Wallace had first seen her 
— an overgrown child in a short blue-cotton gown, with 
her long hair floating over her shoulders under her 
“Zulu” hat. 

A barrier seemed suddenly to have arisen between her 
and Wallace. His belief that she was dead complicated 
things ; and the fact that he clearly disliked all allusion 
to the events which occurred at Boulogne distressed 
Laline. Sooner or later she would have to enlighten 
him as to her identity ; and might not this news go far 
to weaken his passion for her? Troubled with these 


154 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


thoughts, she sat still and silent, with big tears gather- 
ing in her eyes, hearing without listening to Wallace’s 
light-hearted talk about indifferent subjects. 

“ Lina,” he suddenly exclaimed, “ you have tears in 
your eyes ! What is the matter, darling ?” 

“ 1 don’t know. A fit of the blues, I suppose.” 

“You want exercise and amusement, that’s what it 
is,” he said, decisively. “ My plan for to-day will do you 
all the good in the world. That room of Mrs. Yande- 
leur’s isn’t good for you. The mental atmosphere is 
unnatural ; you are growing to look ghostlike yourself 
in it !” 

“ I am quite well,” she said, rousing herself from her 
reverie. “ But where are we ? I don’t know much 
about London yet, and I am very near-sighted, and have 
been thinking of something else. But surely this is a 
part of the world I haven’t been in before ?” 

“ This is Baker Street, and we are on our way to 
Begent’s Park and Hampstead. We shall stop at my 
uncle’s Hampstead house, the Homestead, and have some 
skating in the grounds ; then Mrs. Sylvester the house- 
keeper will give us tea, and I will drive you back homo 
in good time this evening.” 

“ But it’s just like an elopement !” she protested. 

“Well, you must blame my uncle for that, and not me. 
It is he who arranged the whole thing, and telegraphed 
to Mrs. Sylvester that we were coming. I always run 
over to the Homestead once or twice a week to see that 
the horses aren’t eating their heads off. I intended 
driving over this afternoon if I had not been going out 
with you ; and it was my uncle who declared that you 
must see the place and judge whether you would like to 
live in it.” 

“ To live in it!” she repeated, in astonishment. “ You 
and your uncle,” she added, “seemed to have settled 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


155 


everything between you in a very remarkable manner, 
without the preliminary formality of consulting me. 
Pray, when did you arrange these nice little plans 
together ?” 

“ As soon as you had left the house last Wednesday. 
My uncle was already aware that I was in love with one 
of you two younger ladies, but did not know which, and 
he was overjoyed when he found it was you. You won 
his heart by listening to his long stories, even if he 
hadn’t been charmed by your lovely face and voice.” 

“ I always understood,” Laline put in, demurely, “ that 
you made your first visit to Mrs. Yandeleur’s house in 
the character of Clare Cavan’s admirer?” 

“I did and do admire Miss Cavan very much,” he 
answered, promptly. “I should like to paint her as 
Yivien charming Merlin, both of them in modern even- 
ing-dress, with Miss Cavan showing off her beautiful 
white neck and arms for a senile and rather Jewish- 
looking Merlin’s edification. Miss Cavan represents a 
very attractive type, but not the type I should care to 
marry.” 

“ You talk,” she said, with a touch of impatience in 
her tone, “ as though any girl would jump at the chance 
of marrying you 1” 

“ I certainly don’t mean to convey that impression,” 
he retorted ; “ although I am sorry to say that many 
girls I meet would be delighted to marry Alexander 
Wallace’s nephew, whatever he might be like — old, ugly, 
deformed, or hateful— just for the sake of Alexander 
Wallace’s money 1” 

“And is it that belief,” she asked, blushing hotly, 
“ which made you so confident in my case ?” 

“ Lina,” he exclaimed, in reproachful tones, “ why do 
you ask me such a question ? It is neither fair to your- 
self nor to me.” 


156 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ Well, I get annoyed when you show how sure you 
felt of winning me,” she explained, apologetically. 

“ Of course,” he said, flicking his horse’s ears reflec- 
tively with his whip — “of course I knew that in time I 
should worry you into saying ‘ Yes.’ But at first I own 
I was a good deal troubled by the strange look of repul- 
sion and even a fear that came into your lovely eyes 
when you looked at me. You remember when, as I left 
the house after my first visit, I turned and looked back 
and caught you watching my departure from a window 
on the ground-floor ?” 

“ I remember.” 

“Well, your look then was one of terror and dislike 
combined, which simply struck dismay into my soul. 
Tell me, Lina — why did you look at me like that ?” 

“You reminded me of some one whom I used to 
know and dislike four years and a half ago,” she an- 
swered, faintly. 

She half hoped that the date she gave would form a 
link in his mind ; but her words evidently conveyed to 
him no hint of her intention, for he only laughed. 

“Four years and a half ago you must have been such 
a very little girl that your prejudices were probably 
wholly unreasonable,” he said, cheerfully. “How old 
are you now, Lina ?” 

“ Twenty.” 

“ As old as that ? I thought you were fully two years 
younger. Well, Lina, there is just the right difference 
between us. What does Shakspere say ? — 

1 Let still the woman take 
An elder than herself ; so wears she to him, 

So sways she level in her husband's heart.' 

Our marriage will bo ideal in every way.” 

“ If I marry you.” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


157 


“ If! You won’t be able to help yourself. How slowly 
this mare is going!” 

“ Slowly ! We seem to me to be skimming over the 
ground !” 

“ Ah, but that’s because you are not so anxious as I to 
get there 1” 

Laline glanced shyly up at him, and her heart began 
to suddenly beat quicker. She had never yet been made 
love to in her life, but she felt certain that Wallace was 
counting the moments until he could claim the kiss out 
of which Clare Cavan’s sudden entrance had defrauded 
him on the preceding Wednesday. For the first time it 
became strongly borne in upon her mind that she was 
doing something altogether startling and unconventional 
in thus accompanying a young man, against whose 
character very serious accusations had been made, to his 
country-house without the necessary sacrifice to Mrs. 
Grundy provided by the presence of a chaperon. But, 
after all, was she not engaged to him, with his uncle’s 
full sanction — and was he not by law her natural guar- 
dian and protector, being in very truth her husband ? 

Looking at him under the bright, clear light of a frosty 
winter sun, Laline could see in Wallace’s face no signs at 
all of the vices and follies attributed to him. The study 
of his features, on the other hand, filled her with a secret 
delight and pride of possession which thrilled through her 
entire being. This was essentially a manly man, hand- 
some, erect, full of life, strength, and vigour — a man 
whose mere outward appearance attracted long and 
admiring glances from women of all ranks as he drove 
along, and whoso driving and perfectly neat and smart 
turn-out drew towards him looks of approbation from 
masculine equals and inferiors alike. And he was not 
only her husband, but in love with her — a man wealthy, 
popular, and much sought after, who had gone out of his 

14 


158 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


way to implore her, a little penniless dependant, to bo his 
wife. 

They were driving up a steep hill by this time, not far 
from Hampstead Heath. 

“That is the Homestead,” Wallace said, indicating 
with his whip the tall stacks of chimneys of a large 
white house peering from among trees near the summit 
of the hill. 

Laline felt glad of both Wallace’s and Mrs. Yandeleur’s 
recent additions to her wardrobe as she drove in the dog- 
cart through the lodge-gates of the Homestead. Clearly 
the rumour that the young master was bringing down 
his future bride had spread abroad, for the lodge-keeper 
came out to pull his forelock and smile, with his wife 
curtseying and smiling behind him. 

At the house — a big rambling erection, decked with 
ivy and creepers, and wearing an air of homelike com- 
fort — Mrs. Sylvester, a plump, middle-aged, gray-haired 
woman, came out in an evident flutter of excitement 
and her best silk dress and cape to welcome the visitors. 

Mrs. Sylvester wanted nothing better than for the 
young master to marry and instal himself at the Home- 
stead, to impart a little liveliness to the establishment, 
and prevent it from being let to strangers, and she was 
delighted with the appearance of Mr. Armstrong’s fiancee. 

“ Quite the lady !” she confided afterwards to the cook, 
in discussing Laline’s appearance. “ As handsome as you 
may wish to see, though p’raps a bit too thin for some 
people’s tastes ; but that only makes her more elegant. 
A sweet face, cook, and dressed in the height of fashion. 
That sable collarette she was wearing must have cost 
thirty or forty pounds ; and her black velvet hat and 
cape were quite the latest fashion. For my part, I like a 
young lady with some style about her.” 

Big fires had been lit everywhere about the house in 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


159 


accordance with old Mr. Wallace’s orders, so that Laline 
might be favourably impressed with the place, and by 
her own request she was presently shown over the iden- 
tical rooms prepared for her reception when she had 
been expected as a bride four years before. These rooms 
wore by this time a more or less faded and neglected air ; 
but the affectionate forethought with which the whole 
suite had at first been planned touched Laline deeply as 
she wandered through the pretty sitting-room, fur- 
nished with books and piano, the daintily-appointed dress- 
ing-room and bath-room, and the cosy little study fitted 
with every trifle necessary to the mistress of a household. 

After the inspection was over, Laline found Wallace 
waiting for her in the drawing-room at the back of the 
house, which led into the grounds through a spacious 
conservatory. A large fire was burning in the fireplace, 
and, as the door closed on Mrs. Sylvester, Wallace drew 
his betrothed towards the friendly blaze. 

u You must get your hands warm before you go out 
again,” he said. “ You must have got cold sitting still in 
the cart.” 

Standing with her in front of the fire, he drew up her 
hands against his neck, and looked down into her eyes, 
his own alight with love. 

“ At last we are alone,” he whispered. “ Lina, do you 
love me ?” 

“ I’m afraid I do.” 

“ Then put your arms round my neck of your own 
accord and kiss me. See — I let them go. It must be 
of your own accord.” 

Her hands crept gently up until they were clasped 
behind his neck, and her soft lips fluttered lightly upon 
his for a second, until, with a sigh of content, he folded 
his arms about her, and kissed her again and again with 
all his soul in his lips. 


160 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ My darling — my Lina — my wife I” 

It seemed to Laline that all her life through she had 
been waiting for this moment, and that no future happi- 
ness could equal this of the first kiss of love given and 
returned. 

“ To think that I have let you grow to twenty before I 
claimed you !” he exclaimed, while they stood together 
before the fire and he stroked her soft hair as she pil- 
lowed her cheek on his shoulder. “Ever since I first 
came to Mrs. Vandeleur’s, and you dropped that magic 
crystal at sight of me, I have dreamed of this moment. 
For though you seemed to be so strangely afraid of me 
in life, in my dreams you were always just as you are 
now, with my arms about you and your head on my 
shoulder; and I knew the moment would soon come 
when my dreams would come true. From the very first 
I knew that you belonged to me by right and must be 
mine some day.” 

“ That is only because you happened to take a fancy to 
me,” she protested, perversely. “ Supposing that I had 
been married to some one else, where would your pre- 
sentiments have been then?” 

“ Ah, but you couldn’t have looked as you did if you 
had been married to any one else, or if you had loved 
any one else! I know — I am certain that you never 
cared for any one before. But tell me so; I like to 
hear it.” 

She laid her hands upon his shoulders and drew a little 
away from him, looking earnestly into his eyes. 

“ I solemnly swear,” she said, “ that I have never in my 
life known what it was to love before, and that I love 
you with my whole heart! There — will that satisfy 
you ?” 

“ And when will you be my wife ?” 

“ Oh, not for a long time yet ” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


161 


“ Why not ? Don’t you wish to be always with me ?” 
he demanded, jealously. 

“ Yes ; but you hardly know me. We must be at least 
engaged long enough to make each other’s acquaintance. 
I shall want to hear all your past life ; you will want to 
hear all mine ” 

“ Your past life is written in your face, dear. All I 
want to read is there.” 

“ But there are things which you must hear — things 
which may anger and surprise you, and even make you 
cease to love me.” 

He held her from him at arm’s length while he 
scanned her face intently. 

“ There is only one thing I care to know,” he said. 
“ Has any man ever kissed your lips before ?” 

“Never!” 

“There,” he cried triumphantly, folding her in his 
arms again and covering her cheeks and lips and eyes 
with quick kisses — “ that is all I want to know and all I 
will listen to ! Come outside now and skate, or we shall 
deeply wound the feelings of the men who have been all 
the morning clearing the ice from show. Let me help 
you to put on your hat. If you look up at me under 
the brim like that I shall never let you get outside, but 
shall spend the entire afternoon kissing you ! Your lips 
are as soft as a rose-leaf, and you have been allowed to 
grow to twenty without being forcibly carried off and 
married, whether you consented or not! Waiting for 
me, my dear, beautiful Lina ? One last kiss before we 
leave the conservatory, and one more on that enchanting 
little pink ear, and one more still on the soft cream- 
coloured space behind your ear, where the gold-brown 
hair grows ! Here we are at the conservatory door. A 
moment more, and I sha’n’t be able to kiss you. Just 
stop long enough to tell me that you love me. No more 
l 14 * 


162 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


1 Mr. Armstrong call me by my second name, as my 
uncle does — ‘Lorin.’ My name is Wallace Lorin Arm- 
strong. Mow say that you love me and are glad to be 
my wife.” 

Tears were in her eyes as she obeyed him — tears of 
intense happiness after long years of loneliness and sep- 
aration. 

“ I love you, Lorin dear,” she murmured, in tender, 
trembling tones ; “ and I am glad with all my heart and 
soul to be your wife !” 


CHAPTER XYII. 

Skating in the Homestead grounds was skating at its 
best. 

A considerable expanse of water, forming a miniature 
lake, led out into a long winding canal, which took its 
course under tall over-arching trees and between steep 
banks, in summer decked with flowering reeds, forget- 
me-nots, and ferns. 

Laline had not skated since she lived in the country 
with her mother as a little child; but Wallace Arm- 
strong excelled in skating, as he did in all outdoor exer- 
cises, and once he had fitted to her feet one of several 
pairs of skates he had provided, and had affixed his own 
as well, the two started, he grasping both her hands in 
support and teaching her to bend and sway her supple 
figure as they moved over the ice together. 

The keen air blew in their faces, the whirr of their 
skates and here and there the snapping of a twig under 
the weight of snow were the only sounds that came to 
them ; across the western sky red bands of light showed 
where the sun was sinking to rest ; while over a long 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


163 


stretch of sparkling white snow they could see through 
the bare tree-branches the comfortable lights shine out 
of the windows of the house to beckon them to warmth 
and shelter. 

But Laline and Wallace were on enchanted ground; 
they seemed no longer two persons, but moved by one 
and the same spirit as they sped hand in hand over 
the frozen lake. Faster and faster they flew, until they 
seemed to leave the beaten wind behind them and to 
glow with a warmth that was kindlier than sunshine. 
It was as though they could not tire; the magnetic 
effect of shoulder touching shoulder, hand clasped in 
hand, spurred them ever to fresh efforts. Not until six 
o’clock did Laline remember that she was tired. Then 
suddenly her ankle gave way ; she slipped, and would 
have fallen had not Wallace caught her in his arms. 

“ I am tired,” she said, clasping both hands round his 
arm as she smiled up in his face. “ I never thought of 
it until this minute, because it was so perfectly beautiful. 
But I am really very tired.” 

He reproached himself strenuously for having allowed 
her to do too much, and, tenderly assisting her to a seat, 
removed her skates and led her to the house. In the 
drawing-room a lamp was burning under a shade of 
crimson silk, throwing a ruddy glow over the room, and 
the leaping firelight shone on the tea-things spread on a 
small table near its cheerful blaze. 

“ You must want dinner now, my poor, dear child!” 
exclaimed Wallace, ruefully. “We ought to have had 
tea an hour and a half ago, only we forgot all about it.” 

“ Tea is just exactly what I want,” she declared — “ tea 
by the fire ! And then I must be rushing back as fast as 
I can go. What will Mrs. Yandeleur say?” 

“ I will see her to-night, if you like.” 

“ Not for the world 1” 


164 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


Into Laline’s face a troubled look crept. There was 
still so much to be told. Mrs. Yandeleur had yet to learn 
that Wallace was her husband; and Wallace had yet to 
be told that he was at length in love with his own wife. 
She was so happy at this moment that instinct warned 
her against the risk of explanations. Wallace saw the 
cloud on her face, and was by her side in a moment. 

“What is the matter, my darling?” 

“Nothing,” she said, turning to him suddenly with 
tears glistening in her eyes — “ except the fear that some 
day you may learn things, hear things, which will make 
you love me less.” 

“ There is no possibility with me of loving you less, 
dear,” he said, “ for I love you absolutely. Until I met 
you I merely drifted through life ; art, business, society, 
athletics, each took a certain portion of my time, but I 
wanted an anchorage. I was frittering my time away 
waiting for you. Do you know what that wonderful 
little old lady of yours told me when she first saw me ? 
She said — I remember her actual words — ‘ You are 
capable of going to the greatest lengths of what people 
would call folly for the sake of one you love. You like 
many people, you love very few. But where you love it 
is a passion, a religion !’ ” 

“ Did she tell you anything else ?” asked Laline, deeply 
interested. w 

“ Yes. She predicted that I was on the eve of a new 
experience which would alter the whole course of my 
life. Why, Lina, that was loving you !” 

“ Yes ; but did she make no prediction ? I know one 
ought not to be so superstitious as to believe those 
things, but she makes such strangely true guesses some- 
times. Did she say your love would make you happy ?” 

He hesitated. 

“ Of course Mrs. Yandeleur doesn’t know everything,” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


165 


he said at last, half laughing. “ She is merely a remark- 
ably close observer, and a good judge of character from 
the face and hand.” 

11 But what did she say ?” persisted Laline. 

“ She said,” he answered, throwing his arm about her 
waist and drawing her closely to him, as though defying 
Fate to separate them, “that my love-affair would bring 
me a great deal of trouble, and that there would be sor- 
row and partings and evil wrought me by an enemy, 
until death should set me free.” 

Almost unconsciously, as he quoted the little sibyl’s 
words, his tone changed from banter to deep seriousness ; 
and to Laline there was something ominous and terrify- 
ing in Mrs. Yandeleur’s prophecy. 

“ I can’t bear to hear you repeat her words,” she whis- 
pered, clinging to him as she spoke, “ for to me also she 
prophesied that trouble — terrible trouble — would come 
into my life if once I let love enter my heart.” 

“ And yet what trouble can come between you and me ?” 
he asked, smoothing her brow with his hand as she rested 
her head against his shoulder. “ Who can part us ? No 
one, so far as I know, has either the power or the will to 
do so. My uncle is almost as anxious for my marriage 
as I am — and, if I had my way, it should take place to- 
morrow. Mrs. Yandeleur will offer no objection, I imag- 
ine, and, even if she did, she has no authority over you. 
Your health is good ” 

“ I never remember a day’s real illness in my life.” 

“ Nor do I. And here is your house ready for you. 
As to money to buy frocks and things — you have only 
to mention a sum and my uncle will send it to you by 
return of post. Nothing can part us now !” 

“Don’t, don’t 1” she exclaimed, laying her fingers on 
his lips — “ it sounds like a challenge to Fate 1” 

He laughed as he kissed her finger-tips. 


166 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ That ghost-ridden panelled room of Mrs. Yandeleur’s 
has held you too long,” he said. “ You are growing as 
superstitious as an old villager. And, my darling, there 
are actually tears rolling down your cheeks ! Mow let 
me dry them, and then you must bathe your eyes and 
take off your hat and cloak, and we will sit down facing 
each other at the tea-table and play at being a newly- 
married clerk on a hundred a year bringing home his 
bride !” 

Half laughing, but with moist eyes, she obeyed him, 
and in a very few minutes they were sitting down to an 
old-fashioned country tea of hot cakes, hot buttered 
toast, and eggs served in various ways. To each it 
seemed the most absolutely satisfactory meal ever placed 
before them ; but then they were very much in love, and 
they were together. 

The one predominating idea in Wallace’s mind was the 
wedding-day ; and upon whatever subject Laline began 
to talk he invariably brought it round to the date he 
wanted her to fix. 

“ You have just said you are so fond of sunshine and 
that you don’t like cold and fogs,” he said. “ Well, then, 
why put up with any more of them ? We will be married 
at once, and set sail for Algiers or Cairo or the Canary 
Islands, or just where you please where there is sunshine 
and warmth and a blue sky above us. Why should you 
be shivering in St. Mary’s Crescent, and I be freezing at 
a desk in the Strand, when we might be enjoying our- 
selves on sunny seas together ? Are you fond of the 
sea?” 

“ Yery, very fond. I was never so happy when I 
lived in Boulogne as when I could wander alone for 
miles along the sands, watching the waves. And I am 
a capital sailor too.” 

“ So you have lived at Boulogne ?” he remarked, in 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


167 


some surprise. “ I had a short and very unpleasant ex- 
perience of the place rather more than four years ago — 
a time I much dislike recalling. But, if you love the 
sea, we have endless delight to look forward to, for I am 
never happier than when on board ship. So that brings 
me back to the day, Lina dear ; and if you really loved 
me you wouldn’t put me off and keep me waiting.” 

“I have never bought a trousseau /” she demurred. 
“You must let me consult Mrs. Yandeleur as to just 
what time I shall want to get my things together.” 

“ I think it is the most preposterous convention in the 
world,” he protested, energetically, “ that two people who 
love each other should be kept apart over a silly mat- 
ter of millinery ! As though I should value you more 
highly with a dozen hats than with one, or think you 
more beautiful in any gown than you look at this minute I 
In Shakspere’s time girls knew what love meant. Juliet 
didn’t worry Borneo to wait while she ordered and tried 
on frills and furbelows, but went straight to the point — 

‘ If that thy bent of love he honourable, 

Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow, 

By one that I’ll procure to come to thee, 

Where, and what time, thou wilt perform the rite ; 

And all my fortunes at thy feet I’ll lay, 

And follow thee, my lord, throughout the world I’ ” 

“Juliet was only fourteen, and didn’t know the value 
of dress,” Laline retorted, laughing. 

“ If we have a special license,” he remarked, ignoring 
her protest, “ we need not have that tiresome fortnight 
of delay.” 

“ When I do marry you,” she said, quickly, “ it must 
be in a church. Marriage in a registry office means 
nothing to me and seems only an impious mockery.” 

“ Of course we’ll be married in a church !” he returned, 


168 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


in some surprise. “St. Mary-le*Strand or Kensington 
Church, whichever you prefer. And, now that we have 
come to the place, dear, it is as well to fix the day.” 

It was only after long persuasion that Laline at last 
agreed that the ceremony should take place in February, 
a month that had just begun. It seemed as though she 
were afraid of hurrying on the wedding lest those mis- 
fortunes at which Mrs. Yandeleur had hinted should 
follow close upon her decision. She was intensely anx- 
ious, for the same reason, to defer, for the next few days, 
at least, any public announcement of her forthcoming 
marriage. 

“Everybody will say I am marrying you for your 
money,” she explained, “ and I sha’n’t like to hear it.” 

“ What in the world does it matter to us what they 
may say ?” he inquired. “ They will scarcely tell you so 
to your face ; and, if such things are going to be said, 
they will be uttered just the same if we marry next 
week or next year. If you loved me a hundredth part 
as much as I love you, you wouldn’t want to defer our 
marriage by an hour.” 

“We are so perfectly happy as we arel” she was 
pleading, when he interrupted her. 

“ Perfectly happy I When I have to leave you and 
exist through hours before I see you again I am not 
happy. Of course I will call to-morro^ at St. Mary’s 
Crescent ” 

“ Not to-morrow. Monday.” 

“ Lina, you are proving every moment more clearly 
how little you care !” 

“ Lorin, dear, I do care ! But I must have breathing 
time.” 

This conversation took place in the brougham, in 
which Laline was being driven back to Kensington, as 
Wallace feared lest she might catch cold in the dog-cart. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


169 


In the brougham, too, he could sit beside her with his 
arms wrapped round her, which was an ideal method of 
travelling and to the taste of both. To Wallace it 
seemed as though immense capabilities for passion and 
tenderness, which for years had been closed up within 
his heart, overflowed now for the first time. He could 
not lavish enough caresses upon her, could not call her 
by enough tender names; and the contrast between his 
present extreme demonstrativeness and the easy courte- 
ous self-possession of his habitual manner might well 
have startled Laline, but that the change in her own 
bearing was, if possible, even more marked. 

Yery early deprived of a mother’s love, and placed in 
a position entailing a measure of responsibility, Laline 
had received little or no marks of affection from man or 
woman since her early childhood. “ La p'tite Gart ” had 
cooked her father’s dinners, run on her father’s errands, 
and taken care of the neighbours* children ; and, later, 
Miss Lina Grahame, assistant mistress at Mrs. Melville’s 
select Academy for Young Ladies, had been looked up 
to as a paragon of austere propriety, engaged from 
seven in the morning until nine at night in instilling 
English, French, needlework, and manners to her em- 
ployer’s pupils. 

In all this life of routine there had been no love at all. 
For seven years the girl’s whole nature, originally con- 
fiding and affectionate, had been repressed and thrown 
back on itself. Knowing that she was really married, 
she had set herself the task of crushing out of her 
heart every trace of tender feeling for any person of the 
opposite sex. She had not dared to love, and had planned 
for herself a future of incessant work and activity, into 
which no thoughts of love might ever enter. The shock 
of overhearing her father and husband haggling over 
the money bargain by which she was transferred from 

15 


170 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


the one to the other had been great and even terrible ; 
but fortunately Laline’s nature was too sweet to be per- 
manently embittered against all men by those unhappy 
early experiences. Still the result of these latter had 
been to make her both self-reliant and reserved, and to 
induce her to regard herself as a person set apart, for 
whom the happiness of loving and being loved could 
never exist, doomed by man’s selfishness to a life of love- 
less solitude. 

Matters being thus with her, the affection with which, 
almost from the moment of his entrance into Mrs. Yan- 
deleur’s house, Wallace had inspired her, came like the 
warmest sunshine into Laline’s heart, melting the icy 
reserve in which it perforce was wrapped. She had 
never really tried to resist the feelings of interest and 
tenderness with which he had inspired her. He was her 
husband — it was right that she should love him ; and 
neither her remembrance of his selfish treachery towards 
her years ago, nor the vague rumours of drunkenness 
and dissipation which she had heard against him re- 
cently, sufficed to diminish her growing regard. Duty 
and inclination went hand in hand, and she knew now 
that she had loved him as they wandered together under 
the snow-covered trees in Kensington Gardens, had loved 
him as they stood together in the South Sea room at his 
uncle’s house, and that she loved him now, passionately 
and without reserve, receiving and returning his kisses 
with a warmth and tenderness which satisfied even a 
lover’s exacting spirit, and nestling against him with 
a gentle confidence which touched and delighted him 
beyond the power of words to express. 

It was nearly ten o’clock when the carriage arrived in 
the old-fashioned red-brick Crescent and clattered over 
the stone-paved court until it drew up before Mrs. Yan- 
deleur’s door. A fight burned in the front room on the 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


171 


ground-floor, and Clare Cavan’s face was clearly to be 
seen, pressed against the window and peeping out at 
them. 

“ Don’t kiss me, Lorin — some one is watching !” 
whispered Laline ; but her warning was thrown away. 

“ I am proud of my right to kiss you, darling, and I 
don’t care who sees me !” he whispered back, as, raising 
his hat, he pressed his lips to hers. 

The next moment the door was opened by Susan, and 
Laline ran into the house. 

In the front room Clare bit her thin red lips until the 
blood started ; she was too genuinely angry even to go 
after Laline. 

“ Cat I” she whispered to herself. “ Sly cat, with her 
Puritan airs ! But I’ll make her suffer for cutting me 
out and making me look ridiculous ! And Aunt Cecilia, 
too, laughing at me absolutely, and telling me I’d better 
leave off trying to attract with Lina about ! I can at 
least make her thoroughly miserable and uncomfortable 
to-morrow morning. But as soon as he comes he will 
set it right. Never mind ; he shall have a bad time of it 
to-morrow, too, and shall be made to feel disgraced and 
ashamed before Lina and Aunt Cecilia and me if I can 
manage it. It’s most unlucky that to-morrow’s Sun- 
day !” 

A sudden inspiration came at that moment to Miss 
Cavan ; her odd green eyes gleamed with satisfaction as 
she quickly seated herself before a desk and proceeded 
to t write, in a round disguised hand, a letter addressed 
to “ "Wallace Armstrong, Esq.,” and signed “A Well- 
Wisher.” 

She laughed as she read it j and, still laughing, ran 
lightly to her room, put on her hat and cloak, slipped 
the letter into her pocket, and, venturing boldly out into 
the snowy night, chartered a hansom and directed tho 


172 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


man to drive to a certain address, in order that with 
her own hands she might place her precious missive in 
the letter-box. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

To Laline’s great relief, no one spoke to her or inter- 
fered with her in any way on her return ; and she was 
able to retire with her ecstatic thoughts to her own 
room. 

To say that she had never been so happy in her life 
would be to understate the case. Until this day she had 
not known what happiness was. Sleep was out of the 
question for a long time ; Laline was too happy to sleep. 
She laid her flushed cheek upon her pillow, and pro- 
ceeded slowly and lingeringly to recall every word, every 
look, and every caress she had received from Wallace 
Armstrong. 

Her vivid imagination being excited to its utmost, she 
thrilled again at her lover’s touch, saw again the love- 
light in his eyes, turned her face to meet his kisses, 
and murmured into her pillow answering vows of un- 
alterable love. 

Ho scruples restrained her from giving herself up heart 
and soul to thoughts of him. He was her husband, 
and she had a right to love him, to glow with delight 
at the memory of his caresses, and to long ardently 
for the moment when she should see him again. In a 
very few days she would be doubly married to him 
— for Laline was resolved that the blessing of the 
Church should cement that hurried and unimpressive 
civil ceremony at Boulogne. 

It occurred to her more than once that Wallace, in 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


173 


his impatience to claim her as his wife, might wish, 
when once he learned her identity, to dispense with 
the delay of a second wedding; and for this reason 
alone she debated whether it might not be better to 
defer telling him the truth until after the ceremony 
had been performed. 

Yet again she told herself that before the altar she 
must speak the truth. Laline Armstrong and not Lina 
Grahame was her name, and as Laline Armstrong she 
must be married — Laline Armstrong, neither spinster, 
widow, nor wife. The definitions confused her, and she 
laughed aloud in the dark from sheer light-heartedness 
to think that a man should be unknowingly wooing 
and wedding his own wife. 

She would never feel that she was really his wife 
until they had been married in a church. So utterly 
different was the man she now knew and loved from 
the reckless, defiant, capriciously kind Wallace Arm- 
strong of the old Boulogne days, that it seemed as 
though another soul had entered into the man, and 
| that another ceremony was necessary to make him 
i truly her husband. 

The marked dislike, amounting almost to abhorrence, 
with which he alluded to his past experiences was char- 
acteristic of his complete reformation; but it was just 
this quality which made Laline dread breaking the 
truth to him. At least for a few days she decided that 
she must still be Lina Grahame. Their relations were 
so perfect that the introduction of any new element 
might mar their complete harmony; and having once 
arrived at this determination, Laline let her brain slip 
back again to the congenial employment of living again 
through every incident of her second courtship until at 
length her waking dreams of passionate delight were 
merged in sleep. 


15 * 


174 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


At this precise moment all happiness fled. No sooner 
was she asleep than terrible dreams afflicted her soul 
— dreams in which she was always endeavouring to 
reach her lover until some terrible catastrophe occurred 
to prevent their union, and she was hurled away into 
space with the sound of a man’s mocking laughter in 
her ears. 

Sometimes she thought she was wandering in a flower- 
bedecked meadow under a cloudless sky while number- 
less birds sang sweetly overhead. At a little distance 
she perceived Wallace approaching her, with gladness in 
his eyes and arms outstretched to embrace her. Through 
all her joy at sight of him a sense of foreboding hung 
over her which was too soon justified ; for as, advancing 
rapidly to her side, he had almost seized her hands in 
his, the solid earth cleft open beneath their feet and 
they were irrevocably parted. 

“ You are mine — mine !” another voice seemed to 
mutter in her ear. Invisible hands imprisoned her, 
holding her back whenever she strove through the 
long hours of hideous dreaming to reach her lover; and, 
when at length the morning dawned and she awoke, it 
was with a terrible sense of impending trouble weighing 
upon her mind. 

Just such a night of horrors had she experienced on a 
previous occasion not many days before. Tho night pre- 
ceding Wallace Armstrong’s appearance at Mrs. Yande- 
leur’s house had been marked by exactly similar dreams ; 
and Laline, as she dressed and contemplated her pale 
face and startled eyes in the looking-glass, tried to reas- 
sure herself by recalling that no untoward event had 
followed her dreams on the former occasion. 

“ They say dreams are always fulfilled in just the re- 
verse way,” she told herself. “Meeting my husband 
again was the happiest thing that ever happened to me ; 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


175 


so why should not last night’s horrible fancies, which 
were exactly similar in character, portend some unex- 
pected blessing? Oh, I am growing too sillily super- 
stitious! Wallace is quite right; this house isn’t good 
for me. But I shall leave it soon ; and this month my 
husband’s home will be mine. Nothing can part us now 
— nothing !” 

In spite of her assumed brave front, Laline could not 
get rid of the unpleasant impression produced by her 
night fancies ; and when she joined Clare Cavan at the 
breakfast-table, that young lady commented at once upon 
her altered appearance. 

“ My dearest Lina, you look so pale and so upset ! 
What is it ? Did you overtire yourself yesterday ? 
You were out with some friends from your old school, 
were you not ?” 

Looking up suddenly, Laline perceived the lurking 
malice in the speaker’s eyes and boldly took up the chal- 
lenge Clare had thrown down. 

“ I was with Mr. Armstrong,” she answered, in clear, 
firm tones, “ skating in the grounds of his uncle's house 
at Hampstead.” 

“With Mr. Wallace Armstrong?” Clare inquired, in 
tones of assumed surprise and anxiety. 

“ Yes. I thought I saw you at the window watching 
us drive up to the house,” Laline observed, calmly. 

“ Well, I certainly thought it was you and he,” the 
ingenuous Clare returned, “ but in the dark I couldn’t be 
sure. I am so sorry !” 

“ Why should you be sorry ?” 

“ Well, I hardly like to tell you ; and yet perhaps I 
ought to. Of course you know that Mr. Armstrong ad- 
mired me very much and paid me a great deal of atten- 
tion ? Well, I liked him too, as you know ; but certain 
facts about him came into my possession yesterday which 


176 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


made me resolve to ask Aunt Cecilia to drop him for the 
future.” 

“ What are those facts ?” 

“ It’s a most shocking affair, dear, and I am afraid will 
distress you. I was dreadfully grieved about it ; for you 
know I thought Mr. Armstrong so nice at first. It ap- 
pears that old Mr. Farquharson the clerk was right, and 
that, though Mr. Armstrong appears so pleasant and 
well-bred and charming, he indulges periodically in fits 
of heavy drinking, during which he is really like a wild 
beast and not responsible for his actions.” 

“ Who told you all this ?” 

“ Mrs. Fitzroy Cleaver was talking about it yesterday. 
She had to forbid him her house because he got fright- 
fully tipsy and tried to make love to the servants. 
That happened last year ; but he is never to be trusted, 
she declared, and may break out at any moment.” 

“ I simply don’t believe it 1” 

“ Will you believe your eyes ?” asked Clare, lowering 
her white lids to hide the triumph in her gaze. “Bead 
this ; it is from the Daily Leader of last June.” 

As she spoke, she took from her purse and laid in 
front of Laline’s plate a cutting from a newspaper, 
headed — “ Disgraceful Conduct of a Gentleman.” 

Laline’s heart beat with a sickening apprehension. 
Not wishing Clare to see her emotion, she rose from the 
table and took the cutting to the window, where, with 
cheeks crimson with mortification, she read that Wallace 
Armstrong, “ stated to be nephew to the well-known 
banker Alexander Wallace,” had been brought before 
the magistrate on a charge of drunkenness and brutal 
assault on the police. The accused, it was stated, made 
no answer to the charge ; and, it being proved that on 
three previous occasions fines had been inflicted for simi- 
lar offences and instantly paid, the magistrate decided 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


177 


to mark his sense of the man’s disgraceful conduct by 
sending him to prison with hard labour for six months. 

“ Of course they got him off again,” Clare volunteered, 
as Laline returned the paper to her without speaking, 
“ and it was kept out of most of the papers. I am so 
dreadfully sorry for that poor dear old Mr. Wallace! 
That sort of drunkenness is nothing else but insanity; 
and I suppose one ought to be sorry for Mr. Armstrong 
as well. As soon as I heard the dreadful story it ex- 
plained so many things I couldn’t understand during our 
visit the other day. That person shut up near the 
studio, for instance, was no doubt Mr. Armstrong’s 
keeper, close at hand to look after him in case he should 
have one of his attacks.” 

“ You pretended that it was a woman who sprang out 
upon you.” 

“ Did I say so ? Of course in the dark I couldn’t see. 
In any case, I am very, very sorry for the whole busi- 
ness ; and I do hope, dear Lina, that you won’t take it 
too much to heart. Eemember, Mr. Armstrong is only 
a very slight and recent acquaintance ; it isn’t as if ho 
were an old friend. Don’t worry yourself about him, 
dear.” 

“ I don’t want your sympathy and I don’t want your 
advice ; I don’t believe in either of them !” flamed out 
poor Laline. “ I believe that these are all lies and that 
Mr. Armstrong will be easily able to disprove them. 
And as to being a mere acquaintance — I love him, and I 
am going to marry him !” 

With that, Laline swept from the room, desperately 
unhappy, but determined in spite of all appearances to 
be loyal to the man she loved. 

She tried not to think about him in church, tried to 
appear at luncheon as though nothing had ruffled her 
usual serenity. But Clare’s exaggerated consideration 
m 


178 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


and obvious sympathy were well-nigh intolerable. La- 
line could neither eat nor talk, and could hardly keep 
back from her eyes tears of shame and vexation at the 
turn things had taken since the morning. 

Wallace, her chivalrous, tender, manly lover, a drunk- 
ard and an insensate brute ! The thought seemed sacri- 
lege. And yet Laline remembered she had somewhere 
heard that dipsomaniacs were often, but for that one 
hideous vice, among the most refined and sweet-natured 
of men. Of one thing she was the more resolved every 
hour — she would see her husband at once, tax him with 
what she had learned, and if possible elicit from him the 
entire truth. If only her influence might avail to wean 
him from this degrading vice she would not for one 
moment hesitate, but would dedicate her life to the task 
of reclaiming him. 

With these conflicting reflections agitating her mind, 
she could hardly pretend to pay any attention to Clare’s 
easy and incessant flow of chatter during the course of 
the meal any more than she could attune her mind to 
Mrs. Yandeleur’s fantastic talk in her study in the after- 
noon. The little lady shook her head sadly as she looked 
at her secretary. 

“ Already spoiled ! Already spoiled !” she murmured. 
“ Lina, have you nothing to say to me ?” 

“ I shall have ever so much that I want to say to you 
by this time to-morrow !” Laline cried, springing from 
her chair and beginning to move restlessly about the 
room. “ But you must let me see Mr. Armstrong once 
more first, dear Mrs. Yandeleur. After that, I promise I 
will tell you the entire truth.” 

The little sibyl looked at her long and intently through 
her jewelled eye-glasses. 

“You are very much in love,” she observed, in her 
light silvery voice, and forthwith sighed. “ It is a great 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


179 


pity, when we were getting on so well together,” she 
added, regretfully. “ I wish,” said Laline, wistfully, “ that 
you could tell me whether it will all turn out happily. 
What does it mean, Mrs. Yandeleur, when one dares not 
look ahead, when one watches the hands of the clock in 
dread of what the next hour will bring forth ? And all 
for no reason or for insufficient reason. It is true that 
to-day I have heard something that troubles me greatly. 
But I was not wholly unprepared to face it, and this 
dreadful foreboding seems to presage something even 
worse, some terrible misfortune for which I am wholly 
unprepared.” 

She stood before Mrs. Yandeleur in her trailing white 
draperies, with scarcely more colour in her face than in 
her gown. Even her lips were pale, as, with low trem- 
bling accents, she gave voice to her fears. 

“ I have told you that love would bring trouble into 
your life,” said Mrs. Yandeleur, “but of course I did not 
expect you to pay any attention to my words. To a 
limited extent, you have yourself the gift of second 
sight. I am going out now to pay a long-promised call 
on Lady Wray. While I am away take this crystal; 
concentrate your gaze immovably upon it, and let your 
heart guide your thoughts. It is possible that you may 
be able to learn as much about your future as I can tell 
you.” 

With that, she gently pushed Laline into a seat, and, 
placing in her hand the crystal ball, passed her fingers 
lightly and rapidly over the girl’s brow, softly murmur- 
ing some undistinguishable words the while. 

A feeling of drowsiness crept over Laline. Her eye- 
lids closed, and for a few seconds she was lost to her 
surroundings. When she again opened her eyes she was 
alone, sitting by the fire, the light from which danced on 
the gleaming tiles and tall brass “ dogs” within the fen- 


180 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


der. The afternoon was one of black frost and gray fog, 
and although it was not yet four o’clock the dull, red 
sun gave but little illumination. St. Mary’s Crescent 
was intensely quiet, but the boards and panelling of Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s study emitted fitful creakings in the highest 
degree calculated to startle a nervous person. 

Laline, as a rule, did not like to be alone there in the 
twilight, but this afternoon she was so much absorbed in 
her thoughts that she was almost indifferent to outer in- 
fluences. She was intensely anxious to see Wallace and 
deeply regretted her own parting mandate to the effect 
that he must defer his visit until the following day. It 
was terrible to live in suspense, dreading and doubting 
lest he should not be able to clear himself from the 
abominable charges made against him. And yet, in the 
face of that newspaper cutting, what could he say ? 
Already the ecstastic happiness which had filled her 
heart on the preceding evening had been dispelled ; in 
spite of everything, she persisted in loving W allace as 
dearly as ever, but her tranquil joy in loving him was a 
thing of the past. 

As she leaned over the fire, lost in thought and ren- 
dered dreamier than was her wont by Mrs. Yandeleur’s 
parting touches, Laline had entirely forgotten the crys- 
tal which the latter had placed in her hand, and it was 
only the sparkle of the glass as it caught the fire-light 
which attracted her attention to it again. She held it 
from her and gazed into its glistening depths ; the 
dancing flames, the ruddy logs, the cloudy night sky 
flecked with stars painted on the ceiling, the dark oak 
panelling of the walls, and the faded tints and grue- 
some figures in the “ Dance of Death” tapestry which 
ran as a frieze round the room, were all mirrored there 
in miniature, seen imperfectly by the aid of her near- 
sighted vision. Gradually, as she bent nearer, fascinated 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


181 


by the prettiness of the reflections, her own face came 
within focus, unusually intent and pale, with eyes fixed 
and distended. Once before, on the afternoon of Wal- 
lace’s first visit, she had held the crystal in her hands, 
and on that occasion, as she recalled now, she had 
seemed to see imaged the figure of her husband. 

Would the same thing happen now ? she wondered, as, 
with straining eyes, she stared into the crystal. 

Presently the glass became clouded, the various ob- 
jects about the room were no longer there, and in their 
stead Laline caught a gleam of green shutters, opened 
to flood with sunshine a small uncarpeted room on the 
floor of which a bright-haired girl was playing with a 
kitten. Laline held her breath. She knew before it 
happened that the door would open and a red-faced man 
with a heavy white moustache would enter, bringing 
another man after him. 

“ A gentleman to see us, Laline I” 

She could almost hear the words, but, as the door 
opened and the girl sprang to her feet to greet the 
visitor, the figures in the crystal began to fade, and of 
the tall massive form following close on that of Captain 
Garth Laline caught barely more than a glimpse. 

Only a glimpse, yet it drove the blood from her cheeks 
and lips and made her catch her breath as one half suf- 
focated. With all the will-power she possessed she 
strove to gaze again into the past. At first her efforts 
were in vain, but after a few seconds of quivering appre- 
hension the crystal depths became cleared again. She 
could see waves rippling in the sunlight and up the shiny 
green supports of a pier, upon which two figures were 
seated side by side — a man and a girl. 

Every detail was correct. Laline remembered the 
pink cotton frock, made with her own fingers, and tho 
black lace hat and Suede gloves, Wallace’s gifts, which 

16 


182 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


she had worn so proudly. The man’s head was lowered 
over the girl, whose left hand he held in his. But 
although Laline could not see his face she experienced 
a thrill of repulsion and terror at sight of his figure and 
thick curly black hair which showed under his straw 
hat. 

Once again her memory brought back words from the 
past to complete the picture, and a man’s voice, at sound 
of which her heart stood still with fear, slowly and im- 
pressively pronounced these words — 

“ This man will love you, and you will not be able to 
escape from him. His line of fate and yours run side by 
side and nothing but death can separate them !” 

On the words the glass became clouded, the figures 
grew fainter and fainter until they vanished altogether, 
and Laline sat, trembling in every limb, with a new 
dread in her soul. 

“ It is the future and not the past which I must see,” 
she told herself. “ If I could only get sight of some- 
thing to guide me I” 

From the depths of the crystal the face of a man 
seemed to resolve itself, and brilliant bluish-gray eyes 
under heavy black eyebrows to fix themselves upon her. 
A faint cry rose to Laline’s lips. She did not wish to 
see what the glass held ; she would not believe her eyes. 
Every moment the face became clearer while her senti- 
ment of loathing and detestation increased in propor- 
tion. 

Moved out of herself by overmastering excitement, 
she would have flung the crystal from her ; but at that 
exact moment the silence in the room was suddenly 
broken by the opening of the door and Susan’s voice 
announcing — 

“ Mr. Wallace Armstrong !” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


183 


CHAPTER XIX. 

Trembling like a leaf in the wind, unnerved and 
weeping, Laline started from her seat, and as the door 
closed on the servant held out her arms towards her 
lover. 

“ You have come at last !” she sobbed out. “ Oh, if you 
had stayed away another moment, I think I should have 
gone mad !” 

He hesitated for a moment and then advanced into 
the room. As he did so she made a step towards him ; 
but her limbs trembled so much that she faltered and 
would have fallen had he not drawn her into his arms. 

For an instant she clung to him, sobbing hysterically, 
while he held her close against his breast smoothing her 
hair with one hand. Then over her from head to foot 
passed a quiver of the same strong repulsion and dread 
she had experienced a few seconds earlier. For a few 
seconds she remained absolutely motionless while her 
very blood seemed to turn cold drop by drop. Then, 
disengaging herself suddenly, she fell back from him and 
stared through the obscurity at his face. 

“ Wallace,” she cried — “ it is not Wallace Armstrong !” 

“ That is my name, at your service, all the same.” 

She did not faint or scream. She stood perfectly still 
before him while her heart seemed to turn to stone. 
She did not attempt to deceive herself. No mistake was 
possible now. All the old happy delusion was destroyed 
for ever by this man’s touch, by this man’s voice. 

For, although she could not clearly see his face, al- 
though he had only spoken a few words, the voice was 
the same as that which had uttered the prophecy on 
Boulogne pier four years ago. 


184 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


And at the sound of that voice all hope of love, all 
thought of happiness died out of Laline’s heart. Her 
dream was over. Hot the man she loved but this man 
whom she hated was her husband. 

The whole truth poured in upon her brain as a sudden 
shaft of light in those terrible moments of silence. Five 
words told the story. There were two Wallace Arm- 
strongs, and she had chosen to persuade herself that the 
one she loved was her husband. This man who stood 
before her now, with mocking laughter in his voice, an 
echo of which had haunted her dreams — this man, 
whose very clothing exhaled a nauseous perfume of 
spirits and whose accents were husky with drink, was 
the husband to whom she had pledged herself until 
death should part them on that fatal summer morn- 
ing. 

There was much to be explained, much that she could 
not understand ; but of this one awful fact she was con- 
vinced and needed no further testimony. He had come 
into her life again, and already his sinister shadow had 
darkened all its sunshine. 

So she stood before him in the twilit room and lived a 
lifetime of despairing grief before he spoke again. 

“ I am really exceedingly sorry to disappoint you,” ho 
said. “ I suppose you expected my cousin ? Your ser- 
vant made a similar mistake at first. From your greet- 
ing I presume that I may congratulate him ?” 

“ Yes, you presume,” she said, and, passing him swiftly, 
she gained the door. 

“ One moment, please,” he interposed, before she had 
time to leave the room. “I don’t think there is any 
mistake on my part. I have come here on an introduc- 
tion to Mrs. Sibyl Yandeleur, the celebrated sorceress or 
thought-reader or pin-finder — I don’t quite know how 
she styles herself. I was not aware, until I arrived at 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


185 


tho house, of the — well, the very intimate terms upon 
which my cousin was received here.” 

He paused, as though he expected her to speak. At 
every word he uttered in those leisurely sneering tones 
which she ought never to have forgotten Laline hated 
him a little more. She wondered now how she could 
ever have believed that such a man as this could grow 
gentle and chivalrous, unselfish and kind. Bitter and 
contemptuous in manner he had always been, but there 
was about him now an added recklessness — outcome of 
a savage scorn against himself and all the world. In 
manner he was the antithesis of his cousin, and yet 
every now and then Laline caught in his voice some in- 
flection which reminded her of the man she loved. Even 
by this light she realised that in figure he was a little 
taller and of much heavier build than his namesake, 
and already inclining to the unhealthy stoutness which 
comes of lazy and dissipated habits. 

It was strange that this time she felt but little of the 
fear of recognition she had before experienced when 
she believed herself in the presence of her husband. 
This man and she seemed in spirit so many leagues 
asunder, and there was so strong a barrier of gross 
material instincts between his mind and hers, that 
Laline intuitively knew he would not remember her. 
One woman would be the same as another to him ; he 
would be incapable of differentiating between them. 
Moreover, any other thought she might entertain about 
him was swallowed up in the overpowering sensation of 
physical dislike with which he inspired her. In this dis- 
like fear had a part, but it was the shrinking horror of 
a delicate and refined nature when confronted by one 
essentially coarse and brutal, and not a personal fear lest 
•he should know and claim her as his wife which moved 
Laline. 


16 * 


186 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


The man was sunk enough, but not so sunk that ho 
failed to recognise, even in the twilight of Mrs. Yande- 
leur’s room, how this slenderly-made, sweet-voiced girl, 
who had clung so tenderly to him when she mistook him 
for his cousin, shrank from him, once her error was 
made known to her, in aversion none the less plain that 
it was not expressed in words. Wallace Armstrong the 
elder was a very handsome man, and had won some 
cheap reputation as a “lady-killer;” consequently this 
girl’s antagonistic attitude piqued and angered him. 

“Can I wait here for Mrs. Vandeleur?” he inquired, 
with mock politeness. “ Or can I wait somewhere else 
— because, if you expect my cousin, I fear I shall be 
rather in the way ?” 

“Mrs. Yandeleur is out. She expects no visitors to- 
day, and I do not know when she will return.” 

“ But you expect my cousin ? I am sure he will be 
delighted to see me if you will allow me to wait until he 
arrives.” 

“ If Mr. Wallace Armstrong is your cousin,” Laline 
said, frigidly, with her hand on the door, “ he has cer- 
tainly never mentioned you. Under the circumstances, 
perhaps it would be better if you communicated your 
business to Mrs. Yandeleur by letter. She only receives 
strangers by appointment.” 

She was desperately anxious to get rid of this man, to 
stir his pride so that he should leave at once and never 
gain a footing within the house. His presence tortured 
her, and she longed to escape to her room that she might 
consider the new and horrible situation in which she 
found herself. But before the unwelcome visitor could 
do more than make one step towards the door, it was 
suddenly flying open, and Clare Cavan, in walking-dress, 
hurried in, and held out her hand cordially towards 
him. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


187 


“ Good-afternoon, Mr. Armstrong ! So good of you to 
come on such a horrid foggy day ! Why — have I made 
a mistake ? Susan said it was Mr. Armstrong •” 

“ And it is Mr. Armstrong. Unfortunately my cousin 
and I were given precisely the same name by our respec- 
tive mothers, both of whom were sisters to Alexander 
Wallace the banker, and anxious to propitiate him by 
making us his godsons. Two sisters married two 
brothers, you see. I was the unlucky result in the one 
case, and my Admirable Crichton of a cousin was the 
satisfactory result in the other. I come with an intro- 
duction to Mrs. Yandeleur j but it seems I am rather de 
trop ” 

“ Pray don’t say so. I am sure we are delighted to 
see you!” exclaimed Clare, effusively. “ I am Mrs. Van- 
deleur’s niece, and my name is Cavan. Any friend or 
relation of Mr. Armstrong’s is extremely welcome here. 
Isn’t that so, Lina dear ?” 

Laline did not respond. A combination between Clare 
and this man suggested all manner of vague dangers. 
She longed to quit the room, and yet feared to leave 
them alone together lest they should discuss her and 
make she knew not what discovery thereby. Meanwhile 
Clare was flitting about, ringing the bell for the lamp 
and chattering gaily to her aunt’s visitor, apparently 
bent upon putting him at his ease. 

“Detestable weather to-day, isn’t it, Mr. Armstrong? 
This fog is so fearfully depressing! And I have been 
calling on a family, half of whom were down with the 
influenza and the other half deadly afraid of catching it. 
London on a foggy Sunday afternoon is a most ghastly 
place, isn’t it ? I like church, but I do hate church bells ! 
In the country — across meadows and all that sort of 
thing — they sound musical and soothing ; but in town 
they are most funereal and out of tune with other 


188 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


sounds, and always suggest that one will be late, and 
that one’s glove-buttons will come off at the last minute, 
and one will walk into church after the service has begun 
all red and perspiring and plain ! And that’s an awful 
ordeal !” 

The lamp was brought in during the foregoing speech, 
and by its light, toned down by the amber silk-shade 
which veiled it, Wallace Armstrong the elder gazed 
curiously at the two other occupants of the room. 
Laline had resumed her usual low seat by the fire, but 
it was not to her that his glance was at first directed. 
Clare Cavan stood immediately before him, and his bold 
eyes ran approvingly over the voluptuous curves of her 
figure, the dead whiteness of her skin, and the red and 
yellow lights in her untidy coil of hair. Her white eye- 
lids and pale lashes were lowered to all appearance 
modestly under his scrutiny, but out of the corners of 
her eyes she too was taking stock of him. 

What she saw was by no means wholly pleasing. Even 
by the subdued light of the lamp and fire it was easy to 
read in this man’s appearance the deterioration of his 
moral and physical nature. Originally handsomer than 
his cousin, he had at thirty years of age acquired the 
look of a man ten years older. His plentiful curly hair, 
which fell heavily over his forehead, was already streaked 
with gray. His cheeks were haggard and pale, con- 
trasting with the puffiness of the skin under his eyes 
and about his chin and jaw, and his eyes, beautiful in 
shape and colour, were bloodshot and red in the lids. 
There was undoubtedly a strong family likeness between 
himself and his cousin ; both men were tall, broad-shoul- 
dered, and well made, black-haired, blue-eyed, and of 
regular features, but there all resemblance ceased. Wal- 
lace Armstrong the elder was clearly on the downward 
road. His voice and manner had become coarse and 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


189 


rough, and the bitterness of his nature showed itself in 
almost every word he uttered. Especially in his allu- 
sions to his cousin did this sneering tone assert itself; 
and as if she perceived this and wished to ascertain the 
reason for it Clare led the conversation at once to the 
topic of the younger Wallace Armstrong. 

“Now that I see you by the light,” she said, “you 
are really very much alike. But I think your eyes 
have more gray about them ; your cousin’s are wholly 
blue.” 

“ My hair has more gray about it too,” he remarked, 
sardonically. 

“ Has it ? I hadn’t noticed that. But do you know 
I so much admire gray hair on young men ? It is so 
piquant, I think ! Then you are taller and bigger than 
the Wallace Armstrong we know; and you wear a 
moustache, while he is clean-shaved.” 

“ Yes — a moustache is the one thing Lorin can’t culti- 
vate successfully,” he sneered. “ But he is so eminently 
lucky in every other respect that he ought not to mind 
that one deficiency.” 

“ Then your voices are different, very different,” Clare 
continued, standing before him with her head on one side 
reflectively, and speaking with the air of ingenuous inno- 
cence she knew so well how to assume. “ There are just 
tones now and then which resemble your cousin’s, but 
not many.” 

“ My voice is not adapted to cooing and flattering, as 
his is !” he retorted, with sudden savagery. “ It has had 
no practice in such arts.” 

“It is odd,” Clare said, affecting not to notice his 
growing anger, “ that we did not see you when we 
visited your uncle’s house last Wednesday afternoon !” 

“ Oh, I am kept in the background !” he returned, with 
a short laugh. “I am not pretty or nice-mannered 


190 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


enough to be shown to visitors ; and they have never 
thought of a cage for me, with ‘ Keep away — he bites !’ 
as a warning inscription. My cousin is the show animal, 
with nice, tea-drinking, tennis-playing manners. My 
roughness frightens people. Why, I have already fright- 
ened your friend here, as you see.” 

Clare glanced at Laline. The latter was sitting with 
her eyes fixed, in fascinated dislike, upon the third occu- 
pant of the room. Perhaps she hardly realised how 
clearly her features expressed the disgust with which ho 
inspired her. But Wallace saw it and winced under it. 
Ho woman in his sober moments had contemplated him 
like that yet, and he felt he hated both her and himself 
for that look. 

“ I ought to have introduced you 1” cried Clare. “ How 
stupid of me ! Lina, this is our Mr. Armstrong’s cousin, 
and he thinks he frightened you. Isn’t that absurd ?” 

“ Yery. I am not at all afraid of Mr. Armstrong.” 

“ By But you shall be I” was the thought that 

sprang into life in Wallace’s mind as he noted the quiet 
scorn of her tones. He turned to look at her as she sat 
by the fire in her soft white draperies, with slender 
hands clasped loosely round her knee, one foot on a stool 
before her, and her head a little thrown back. She 
looked very beautiful at that moment and her beauty 
struck into his heart like a dull pain. There was some- 
thing proud and aloof in her appearance of icy purity and 
reserve; and when ho contrasted her present haughti- 
ness of bearing with the passionate demonstrativeness 
with which she had, as she thought, flung herself into 
the arms of his cousin a few moments before, a bitter 
anger was stirred within him. 

Why should she lavish caresses upon Lorin and treat 
him — Wallace — like a dog? 

He would make her pay for it, for certain, and he was 


HER FAIRY FRINCE. 


191 


not a man to register a vow of vengeance against any- 
one and fail to make it good. 

He could not guess that Laline’s appearance of scorn- 
ful quiet was to a great extent the result of the tumult 
of emotions which agitated her. A fierce despair held 
possession of her heart. She seemed to see, lying in 
ruins about her feet, the beautiful castle in the air that 
love had built ; and the dirge of a love that must die 
was ringing in her ears as an accompaniment to every 
word he uttered. This extreme tension of feeling kept 
her rigid as a statue, outwardly cold, but with heart and 
brain on fire. Her every nerve was in quivering rebel- 
lion against Fate, which had linked her to this man she 
hated, while with all her soul she longed to be the wife 
of another. And so she sat, within a few feet of her 
husband, preternatural ly pale and still, her heart throb- 
bing with a woman’s passionate love and as passionate 
grief under her white conventual gown; and Wallace 
looked and hated her for her scornful pride, and hated 
his cousin for having won her love, and told himself that 
he would punish the pair of them if the chance should 
come in his way. 

But to Clare his visit was a disappointment. 

“ He is rough and rather dreadful,” she said to herself, 
“ but comparatively sober. I hoped he would be mad 
with drink, as he was last Wednesday, and as ho often 
is, or I would never have asked him to come.” 


192 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


CHAPTER XX. 

Clare Cavan had wholly misunderstood the man 
with whom she had to deal when, by means of an anony- 
mous letter, signed “A Well-Wisher,” which she herself 
had delivered at his lodgings on the previous evening, 
she had summoned Wallace Armstrong the elder to her 
aunt’s house. 

From what her friends at the skating-party had told 
her she imagined him to be a degraded sot, lost to all 
sense of decency, barely sane, and utterly unpresent- 
able. 

“Awful thing for that poor young fellow Wallace 
Armstrong!” her friend Mr. Fitzroy Cleaver had con- 
fided to her. “ He’s got a cousin who’s rather like him 
in appearance, and has the same name too, which is 
playing it very low down on a fellow. This chap — tho 
other Wallace Armstrong, you know — is always getting 
had up for assault and drunkenness and all that sort of 
thing; and old Alexander Wallace has to pay to have 
the things kept out of the papers. He’s been sent out 
of the country more than once, but always comes back, 
like a bad ha’penny. The last scandal about him was in 
the summer; my sister has a copy of the newspaper 
about it somewhere. I believe his uncle has disowned 
him since then. I am not quite sure but what he’s 
doing 1 time’ now for that. People like that ought to bo 
shut up — don’t you think so? He’ll only end by com- 
mitting a murder or something unpleasant of that sort 
if he’s left at large ; and think how horrid that will be 
for his family !” 

From her hostess, Mr. Cleaver’s sister-in-law, Clare 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 193 

received the paragraph she showed to Laline, and other 
details concerning the reprobate in question. 

“ I had no idea what the creature was like, my dear ; 
and, when he introduced himself to me at Hurlingham 
as a cousin of Mr. Armstrong and a nephew of Alex- 
ander Wallace, it never occurred to me to be on my 
guard against him. I made the terrible mistake of in- 
viting him to dinner. Luckily, it was only ourselves 
and two very old friends. My dear child, when he ar- 
rived he was already half tipsy ! Of course I affected 
not to notice it and tried to keep things out of his way; 
but it was of no use. He drank fearfully during dinner 
and grew very noisy and insulting. As to joining tho 
ladies afterwards — he was hardly capable of standing 
upright and wanted to fight the butler — such an excel- 
lent man ! He had been with us five years, and was 
really almost to be depended upon not to steal too much 
wine — and that is high praise for a butler ! But this 
dreadful Armstrong person struck out at him and upset 
him so much that he gave notice the next morning. Mr. 
Armstrong used fearful language too, and made my 
parlour-maid cry by trying to kiss her when she handed 
him his hat. Dreadful, wasn’t it ? I assure you I didn’t 
get over it for weeks. And the next time I heard of 
him he was in prison, where he richly deserved to be. 
My dear, such a person should be sent to an institution 
for dipsomaniacs or shipped to the Colonies ! I believe 
he hates his cousin, whom he accuses of supplanting 
him in his uncle’s favour, and that he will try and mur- 
der him some day.” 

Of Mr. W T allace Armstrong the elder’s rough brutality 
Clare herself could bear personal evidence. Curiosity 
had led her on the occasion of her visit to Alexander 
Wallace’s house to peer into the room on the top floor 
adjoining the studio ; and she would not easily forget 
i n 17 


194 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


the momentary vision she had had of a man’s face, red 
and swollen by drink and fury, which appeared at the 
doorway, or the violence with which, to an accompani- 
ment of curses, she had been thrust from the room. 
The incident at the time had been inexplicable to her, 
although with characteristic mendacity she had made 
use of it to endeavour to prejudice Laline against the 
younger Armstrong. But as soon as she learned of the 
existence of the scapegrace cousin, recently released 
from gaol, who was forbidden his uncle’s house and only 
frequented it by stealth, she judged rightly that it was 
he whom she had seen upon the evening in question. 

She was far too spiteful to communicate her intelli- 
gence to Laline, and thoroughly enjoyed the latter’s 
evident distress when she was led to believe that the 
man charged with repeated drunkenness and assault 
was her lover. Clare knew quite well that only a few 
words would suffice to remove this misconception from 
Laline’s mind, and that she must therefore devise some 
new plan by which to revenge herself upon her. Un- 
derstanding as she did to some extent the other girl’s 
sensitive and impressionable nature, she decided that 
the coarse insults of a half-insane drunkard, who was 
the near relation of her affianced husband, would be in- 
finitely painful to Laline, and that a visit paid by his 
disreputable cousin to his lady-love would deeply distress 
the younger Armstrong. 

With this conviction, Clare had sat down on the pre- 
ceding evening and indited the following letter, in a 
disguised handwriting, to the elder Wallace, whose ad- 
dress she had learned from her friends. 

“ Sir — I have never met you, but I have heard of you, 
and how you, the elder and the legal heir, have been 
cruelly and unjustly supplanted in your uncle’s heart 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


195 


and your uncle’s home — which last should certainly be 
yours — by the cunning tricks of your younger cousin. 
Although a stranger, I have a fellow-feeling for you, as 
I too have had my rightful place in the affections of my 
relations usurped by an interloper. It is only fair that 
you should know that your cousin is now engaged to be 
married to a lady who has never even heard of your 
existence, and who is marrying him for your uncle’s 
money, to which she believes him to be heir. In justice 
to yourself and to her, can you not see her and tell her 
the truth? She resides with Mrs. Vandeleur, the cele- 
brated palmist, at 21, St. Mary’s Crescent, Kensington. 
If you call, you might pretend to consult her. 

“A Well-Wisher.” 

Instead of the tipsy maniac she had confidently ex- 
pected, this letter had produced a man of sardonic 
humour and rough and unpleasant manners, but unde- 
niably sane and passably sober — a man, too, of strikingly 
handsome appearance, however marred by an ill-regu- 
lated life ; and Clare, wholly ignorant of the deadly 
blow struck at Laline’s happiness by his very existence, 
felt that her shot had missed fire. 

Tea was brought in at this point and refused with 
some disdain by the visitor. With a sickening pang of 
remembrance, Laline recalled the fact that at Boulogne 
Wallace had never partaken of tea. 

“ Liquids that didn’t intoxicate weren’t worth swal- 
lowing,” he had declared ; and as a child she had been 
shocked and startled by such a statement until he had 
managed to convince her that he was joking. How 
could she have been so blind, so foolish, as to suppose 
that such a man as this could develop into the Wallace 
Armstrong she had grown to love ? This creature before 
her was but the man of four years ago, with all his evil 


196 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


habits, his roughness of manners, his scorn for his fellow- 
creatures, his cynicism, and his degraded tastes intensi- 
fied ; and a shudder ran through her at the thought 
that, hut for her flight on her wedding-day, she would be 
even now his property, his chattel, dragged down in all 
possibility to his level. 

“ Not that ! I should be dead !” was the cry that rose 
within her heart at the thought. 

And yet she was his wife ! Those few words spoken 
before the English Consul by a reckless adventurer and 
an ignorant child had made her his for life, even though 
he ignored her existence, even though she had given her 
heart and her word to another. 

A shudder ran through her at the thought, and in- 
voluntarily her dark eyes turned upon him again with 
a look in which hate and fear were mingled. Meeting 
his gaze, she quickly averted her own ; but that second 
look had the effect of completely sobering Wallace. 

The intensity of contempt and dislike it suggested 
was a revelation to him. Demoralised as he was, he 
would rather have faced any danger than this girl’s quiet 
scorn, and the aversion she entertained against him, which 
her sensitive face unmistakably betrayed, attracted his 
attention to her as nothing else could have done. 

As he watched her, a dull resentment against his 
cousin grew stronger within him at every moment. It 
was impossible that this girl could look at him and speak 
to him as she had done if her mind had not been poisoned 
against him. That her haughty coldness was assumed 
he knew from the manner in which she had at first 
greeted him. It must certainly be Lorin who had made 
her hate him in advance, and for this Lorin should be 
made to suffer. 

“ You expect my cousin this afternoon, I believe ?” he 
said, addressing Clare, abruptly. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


197 


“ Don’t ask me,” the young lady replied, archly; “you 
must ask my friend, Miss Grahame. Lina dear, do you 
expect Mr. Armstrong to-day ?” 

“ I think not.” 

“Think? Surely you know, darling I When you 
were skating at his uncle’s house at Hampstead yester- 
day, didn’t he make any appointment to come to-day ? 
But perhaps I oughtn’t to ask.” 

“Were you at the Homestead yesterday?” Wallace 
asked, his face changing suddenly. 

“ Yes.” 

“ It’s a charming old house, is it not ?” Clare asked 
him, innocently. 

“ Oh, you mustn’t ask me !” he answered, with an as- 
sumption of carelessness. “ I am not allowed inside it, 
and I haven’t seen even the outside for ten years now. 
You must know, Miss Cavan, that during that time I 
have been a pariah, driven from my home, and sent as a 
scapegoat into the wilderness. You know the Prodigal 
Son story ; well, I am the prodigal nephew, only there 
wasn’t any outlay on veal on my account ! And so far 
from my excellent industrious apprentice of a cousin 
having to turn out for me, it is only by his condescend- 
ing charity that I am enabled to live at all ! He has 
my uncle’s confidence and affection, and no doubt he will 
have his money. He has his position in Wallace’s Bank 
and will be made a partner there very shortly. He lives 
in clover in the best rooms in the house and the Home- 
stead is practically his own property already. Every- 
where in society he is courted and feted — he is such a 
charming-mannered man, you see, and wears such nice 
clothes, and, best of all, he will be Alexander Wallace’s 
heir. Consequently, beautiful girls, all saintly pride and 
touch-me-not coldness towards poor broken-down disin- 
herited devils like me, carney to my cousin, and throw 


198 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


themselves into his arms, declaring that they can’t live 
without him, and should have gone mad had he stayed 
away one moment longer. Oh, it’s the way of the world, 
Miss Cavan ! Your vestal virgin of the present day is 
ice to the man with no banking-account, but thaws mar- 
vellously in the presence of a fellow with ready cash 
and expectations. The men who go under need expect 
no sympathy nor any civility. The really good women 
are so busy making love to and marrying the eligibles 
that they have no time to waste on the others ; and the 
modern prodigal son, if he ventured back to his father’s 
villa, would be insulted on the doorstep by his younger 
brother’s fiancee , who would look at him as if he were 
dirt, and speak to him as if he were a dog. That, at 
least, is my experience of women 1” 

He had risen while he spoke, and now towered mas- 
sively in the centre of the room, his hands clenched, his 
face pale with anger, which he with difficulty repressed 
from breaking into a storm of fury. Although nominally 
addressing Clare, he stared across at Laline where she 
sat with lowered eyes by the fire, and clearly directed 
his diatribe against her. 

Clare glanced from one to the other, barely able to 
conceal her delight at the turn things were taking. To 
hear Laline insulted was balm to Miss Cavan ; and she 
with difficulty kept a note of triumph out of her voice 
as she begged Mr. Armstrong to resume his seat and not 
to distress himself. 

“ It must be very hard to feel yourself supplanted, as 
you say,” she purred in her soft tones ; “ but really I 
can’t allow you to speak so severely against women ! I 
am sure that many — indeed, most of them — sympathise 
with the unfortunate, and that we are not all mercenary. 
I for one am extremely sorry for you, and so, I am sure, 
is Miss Grahame — aren’t you, Lina dear!” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 199 

Laline did not speak; and after a few seconds of 
silence Wallace took up his tale again. 

“ You are most kind, Miss Cavan,” he said ; “ but you 
are injudiciously so when you lavish sympathy upon an 
unsuccessful man. Your friend Miss Grahame is, if I may 
say so, far more business-like. She metes out devotion 
to the rich man and scorn to the poor one in admirably 
calculating fashion.” 

Challenged thus directly, Laline slowly rose from her 
seat, quivering in every limb, and almost as white as her 
dress. 

“ My affection and respect are not given to your cousin 
because he is rich, Mr. Armstrong,” she said in a low 
voice that vibrated with intense feeling, “ but because he 
is a frank and loyal and honourable gentleman, honest in 
his dealings with men, and gentle and chivalrous to all 
women. I have never heard of you until to-day, but 
now that I have seen you my warmest sympathy goes 
to your cousin. Please let me pass !” 

Her soft dark eyes literally blazed with excitement as 
she waved him imperiously aside and passed from the 
room, leaving Clare and Wallace standing opposite each 
other, subdued with sudden quiet by Laline’s words 
and by the note of passionate indignation and despair 
they could not understand which thrilled through her 
voice. 

“ I can’t understand Lina,” Clare protested, after a 
pause ; “ she is usually so gentle. I am afraid you and 
she have taken a dislike to each other.” 

“ How long has she known my cousin ?” her companion 
inquired. 

“ Oh, she has only met him two or three times I I 
myself had no idea that there was anything at all be- 
tween them until yesterday, when she was out with him 
all the afternoon ; but this morning she confessed to me 


200 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


that she was engaged to him. It seems so very strange, 
as dear Lina had never given me or my aunt the least 
hint of such a thing. But of course I am extremely 
glad for her sake, as she is an orphan, poor child, and 
hasn’t a penny ” 

“ Why do you say you are glad,” Wallace interrupted, 
bluntly, “ when in reality you are bitterly angry ? Do 
you suppose I haven’t guessed who wrote me that letter 
I got last night telling me to call here to-day ?” 

“ What can you mean ?” 

“ Oh, humbug is no good with me, Miss Cavan !” he 
said, laughing scornfully. “ You’ve got your knife into 
this Grahame girl, and into my cousin too, for some rea- 
son best known to you. Did you want to marry him 
yourself?” 

“ Really, Mr. Armstrong ” 

“ Oh, it’s no use turning on injured innocence for me ! 
I never yet met the woman whose word I believed. If 
you want to know how it was I guessed you wrote me 
that letter, I’ll tell you in a very few words. In it you 
spoke about sympathising with me and being very sorry 
for me ; and you used the same expressions this evening. 
Well, no one is really sorry for me — why should they 
be ? My troubles are of my own making ; and if I get 
disinherited, it is entirely my own fault. What are you 
opening those pretty wicked-looking eyes for ? Are you 
so little accustomed to truth that it startles you to hear 
it ? I say my troubles are my own fault, because my 
uncle cares more for my little finger than for my cousin’s 
whole body. Being a narrow-minded and a tediously 
pious and virtuous old nuisance himself, he has a secret 
love for a thorough-paced scamp. I have only to pretend 
to reform for a few weeks to get what I liked out of 
him ; but I can’t be bothered with it. For years roughing 
it among bad company in the Colonies took away all the 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


201 


taste for civilised society I ever had, which was never 
much. I can’t sit hour after hour tied to a desk quill- 
driving ; I can’t pretend to interest myself in tomes and 
ledgers and bills-of-exchange any more than I can talk 
twaddle in a drawing-room over sloppy tea, or play 
lawn-tennis with a lot of prim bread-and-butter misses 
without a word to say for themselves. If I think a 
woman pretty, I tell her so ; if I feel inclined to make 
love, I do so. I am made to lead my own life, to eat 
and drink and walk and sleep and fight and make love, 
and perhaps get drunk and get sober again, but it must 
be in my own way. No one can drive me, and no one 
presumes to pity me. Consequently, it wasn’t difficult 
for me to guess that this pretty but unnecessary sym- 
pathy of yours was only a trick of speech to serve your 
own ends. Do you understand, Miss Cavan ?” 

“ I understand,” she replied, a rare blush creeping 
over her white skin, “ that you are frightfully imper- 
tinent !” 

“ I mean to be more impertinent yet,” he said, and, 
suddenly stooping, kissed her. 

“ That is the way to treat pretty women who tell lies,” 
he observed, coolly picking up his hat as he spoke. 
“ And, now that I have sampled both the young ladies, 
I won’t stop and see the old one. You and I are friends, 
Miss Cavan, and you may rely on me to do you a good 
turn if it suits my book also. As to this proposed mar- 
riage of my angelic cousin with that infernally proud 
stuck-up girl, I’m no more minded to it than you. I 
should dearly love to pay her out for her insolence, and I 
have little doubt that an opportunity will come in my 
way. You know who obligingly finds mischief for idle 
hands. Well, mine are always idle. There’s some one 
coming in down-stairs — your aunt, I expect. Give me 
another kiss before she comes. Oh, don’t pretend to be 


202 


TIER FAIRY PRINCE. 


offended ; it’s silly waste of time I Girls with eyes like 
yours — les yeux en coulisse — always like kissses! And 
who knows? I am worth encouraging, for I may be 
my uncle’s heir after all.” 


CHAPTER XXL 

There is a cynical French proverb which states that 
the worse the man, the better he understands women. 

In the case of the two Armstrongs the saying was so 
far true that Wallace Armstrong the elder, after only 
half-an-hour’s intercourse, gauged to a nicety the mental 
and moral attributes of Clare Cavan, of which his cousin 
had but an elementary notion. He admired her beauty, 
and looked with amusement on her untruthfulness, her 
slyness, and her envious disposition. Vanity and sen- 
suality were two qualities he always expected to find in 
women, and he at once recognised them as leading char- 
acteristics of Clare’s nature. She belonged to a type he 
thoroughly understood; and he knew perfectly well 
that in her secret heart she would not in the least resent 
the insolently-worded admiration or the careless caresses 
of a man as handsome as himself, even though she 
believed herself to be in love with his cousin. Like 
many another man who professes to understand women, 
however, Wallace Armstrong had gained his experience 
among the least worthy members of a sex which he in 
consequence thought himself justified , in scorning. Love 
of money and love of themselves were, in his opinion, 
the two ruling motives in every woman’s life ; and by 
appealing strongly enough to either of these, any man 
could make a conquest of any woman — a conquest which, 
when made, would be, in Wallace’s opinion, not worth 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


203 


having. These ideas, which he freely professed, only 
made him the more popular with such women as came 
in his way, and he was able from experience to calculate 
exactly the effect of his unconventional behaviour upon 
Clare Cavan. 

That young lady was not accustomed to being found 
out. Her drawing-room triumphs had not prepared 
her for this rough-and-ready style of address ; but she 
relished it none the less, belonging as she did to the 
type of woman who secretly worships a bully. Her 
intense vanity led her to believe that the elder Arm- 
strong had fallen in love with her at first sight ; and she 
would have been deeply mortified had she known that 
his sole reason for ingratiating himself with her, and 
presently with Mrs. Yandeleur, was that he might have 
opportunities^of meeting the girl who had been intro- 
duced to him as Lina G-rahame. Clare Cavan’s kiss he 
instantly forgot ; but Lina Grahame’s look of scorn and 
hatred seemed to burn into his soul. 

How dared she — a penniless companion, a prudish, 
calculating, fortune-hunter, intent on securing a wealthy 
husband — how dared she gaze at him as though he were 
a thing accursed ? Hot for a moment could he forget 
her dark eyes, distended with horror, as they fixed 
themselves upon him, or the disdainful curve of her 
sweet red mouth, or the tone in which she said she loved 
Lorin for being an honourable gentleman, but pitied him 
since she had met his cousin. 

For years he had not wished for anything so ardently 
as he now longed to humble this girl’s pride and give 
her back scorn for scorn. Her face lingered persistently 
in his mind ; he had but to close his eyes to recall every 
feature with absolute distinctness, even the two perpen- 
dicular lines between her eyebrows when she frowned, 
and the quick trick of her fingers pushing her hair from 


204 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


her brow, seeming strangely familiar to him. It was 
presumably the sympathy of hate, he told himself, which 
made her image so clear and dominant in his mind. 
Yet he lingered at Mrs. Yandeleur’s, in the hope that 
Lina Grahame might again appear, for fully an hour 
after the elder lady’s return. 

His handsome appearance and surly manners interested 
Mrs. Yandeleur, who promptly prophesied all manner of 
evil things for him from a cursory study of his hand and 
face. 

“ You have quite a remarkably wicked hand !” she ex- 
claimed, bending over it with a touch of genuine excite- 
ment. “Decidedly you were born under an evil star, 
for you bring misfortunes to yourself and to other people 
alike ; and what is more curious, you appear to deserve 
them. I am really afraid of telling you more, lest I 
should hurt your feelings.” 

“ Hot a bit. I am accustomed to strong language on 
the subject of my character, from my relations and from 
police-court officials alike.” 

“ You have no moral principles whatever,” continued 
the little lady, turning over his large, well-shaped, but, 
truth to tell, not over-clean hand with her delicate be- 
ringed fingers. “ You are wholly unreliable and most 
ungrateful; your passions are violent, and you make 
no attempt to control them. You are selfish to the 
core ” 

“Pray stop the catalogue of my deficiencies, Mrs. 
Yandeleur, or your niece here will fall madly in love 
with me !” 

‘^Your past has been troubled and stormy, and your 
future looks very black,” continued the little lady, quite 
unmoved by his sarcasm. “Only one thing can save 
you — the love of a good, pure woman.” 

She uttered the words with her usual slow impressive- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


205 


ness, letting his hand fall as she finished speaking ; and, 
although he affected to treat the matter lightly, her 
words rang through Wallace’s brain when he left her 
house a little later in the evening. 

It was a miserably dull and gloomy evening, bitterly 
cold and shrouded in fog. There was some excuse for 
spirit- drinking under the circumstances ; but Wallace 
did not require an excuse for the constant whiskies-and- 
sodas and “ nips” of raw brandy in which he indulged 
at all hours of the day and night when free from his 
cousin’s watchful care. Since his imprisonment he had 
been lodging in a street off the Strand ; and, although 
he was forbidden to enter Alexander Wallace’s house, 
his cousin encouraged his visits there in the hope of 
keeping him out of mischief. It was easy enough for 
him to summon Adams by knocking in a peculiar man- 
ner agreed upon between them, and then to slip up-stairs 
to Lorin’s rooms, where he was sure of warmth and 
comfort and a hearty welcome. Old Alexander was 
aware that his orders regarding his elder nephew were 
set at naught, and he was well pleased that it should be 
so. Wallace had angered and shamed him so deeply 
that his name was a forbidden subject in the household, 
and the old gentleman affected to believe that he had 
only one nephew. That his sister’s child, whom he had 
brought up from a boy and loved as his own son, should 
be convicted of drunkenness and brutal violence and 
sent to prison with hard labour, had been a terrible blow 
to the old man, from whom Lorin had often contrived to 
keep his cousin’s delinquencies a secret. The disgrace 
of the whole affair went nigh to break Alexander’s 
heart, and none the less so because he had always most 
unreasonably loved his elder nephew the better of the 
two. 

Lorin was now seven-and-twenty j and since his 
18 


206 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


parents’ death, eighteen years before, he had been 
adopted by his uncle, to whom he had been in every 
way a credit. Beyond a few school scrapes, the result 
of boyish high spirits, and a little unnecessary expendi- 
ture at college, there had been no fault to find with him. 
He had been a good, even a brilliant scholar, and had 
won the liking and esteem of all who had to do with 
him as a growing lad ; and when arrived at man’s estate 
the same tale was true. Although disinclined for office- 
work, he had set himself to master the entire business 
at the bank, with the result that his opinion was already 
of value in the house, while outside among general 
society he was extremely popular and everywhere in 
great request. 

With his cousin it was far otherwise. As a mere baby 
he had been placed in Alexander Wallace’s care by the lat- 
ter’s elder sister, a woman of passionate and ungovernable 
temper, very unhappily married to a man from whom 
she was speedily separated. The heart of the old bach- 
elor-uncle went out to the handsome black-haired baby 
boy at first sight, and no subsequent delinquencies on 
Wallace’s part could wholly alienate from him his uncle’s 
love. By turns he was expelled from school, “ plucked” 
for examinations, rusticated from college, and gradually 
shunned by the more respectable and law-abiding of his 
acquaintances. A fierce, sardonic temper and instinctive 
rebellion against all constituted authority characterised 
him from early boyhood, and his uncle’s indulgence, 
while it bred in him no reciprocal affection, developed to 
the full the boy’s intensely selfish nature and extrava- 
gant disposition. As a lad he possessed considerable 
charm of manner, despite his intractable disposition; 
and from the time when, at the respective ages of nine 
and twelve, the two cousins first met, Lorin had loved 
and shielded him, often taking upon himself the blame 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


207 


for Wallace’s misdemeanours, and showing towards his 
elder an affectionate forbearance which the latter was 
wholly incapable of appreciating. 

At twenty-one, Wallace Armstrong forged his uncle’s 
name on several separate occasions, chiefly in order to 
settle his heavy gambling debts, some of which he had 
contracted at the club kept at one time by Captain 
Garth, Laline’s father. 

Then followed years of banishment, spent for the most 
part in gambling-dens, hotel-bars, and billiard-rooms, 
among the male and female “riff-raff” of the Colonies, 
leading up to the moment of Wallace’s return to Europe, 
and his memorable meeting with Captain Garth in the 
market-place of Boulogne. 

From the time of his return ’to his uncle’s house, 
under his cousin Lorin’s care, in deep mourning for the 
youthful bride of whom typhoid fever had, so he said, 
deprived him, Wallace Armstrong’s conduct had grown 
daily worse. At the beginning he did indeed make 
some pretence of earning his living as a clerk in his 
uncle’s employment ; but his unpunctuality, his careless- 
ness, and his habit of appropriating as his own any loose 
change that might pass through his hands, speedily 
proved his unsuitability for such a position. Both Lorin 
and his uncle set to work to find some out-door occupa- 
tion which such a ne’er-do-well might find within his 
powers; but Wallace’s total unreliability, his insolence 
and laziness, together with his intemperate habits, ren- 
dered him undesirable in any wage-earning capacity 
whatever. He did not like work and had no intention 
of working, and he detested i*egular hours and the con- 
ventions of peaceable citizenship. But for Lorin’s inces- 
sant care and kindness and the generosity with which he 
denied himself in order to provide his cousin with more 
than the mere necessities of life, Wallace would have 


208 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


gone under long before. Yet he was in no way grateful 
to Lorin, but cherished against him a bitter snarling envy 
which he did not scruple to express in words. 

“I know you enjoy unselfishness and that sort of 
thing,” he would say, while pocketing his cousin’s money, 
“ so I won’t deprive you of the chance of feeling virtuous. 
This doling out pocket-money to me, and filling up my 
whiskies with your infernal soda-water, and bailing mo 
out when I am run in, all places you in a beautiful light 
of self-sacrifice and stained-glass-window sort of nobility 
and charity. The prodigal son’s brother made a great mis- 
take in openly grudging the outlay on the other fellow ; 
it would have paid him better in the long run to have 
pretended a great concern for his welfare, as you do for 
mine.” 

On this particular evening, when Wallace found him- 
self in the Crescent outside Mrs. Yandeleur’s house, he 
did not feel in the mood for his favourite amusement of 
sneering at his cousin. Certain things he had seen and 
heard during the course of his visit had made an unusu- 
ally strong impression upon his ordinarily callous and 
drink-sodden brain. 

“ I love your cousin because he is a frank and loyal 
and honourable gentleman — honest in his dealings with 
men, and gentle and chivalrous to all women.” 

He could hear the words now ringing through his head 
in those sweet deep tones of a voice which was oddly 
familiar to him. 

Had this Lina Graham known him intimately instead 
of being a complete stranger to him, she could scarcely 
have chosen words more calculated to wound him by 
emphasising the differences between him and his cousin. 

Frank and loyal, honourable and honest, gentle and 
chivalrous ! 

Not one of those qualities was to be found in Wallace, 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


209 


and he knew it. Even his apparent brusque truthful- 
ness was assumed, and he could, if the occasion served, 
lie with apparent directness and simplicity. Women in 
general, or, at least, such women as he met, liked a man 
the better for his bad reputation ; but this little prude in 
white was clearly not of these. He hated to recall the 
scorn of her gaze ; it pricked and stung him even while 
he endeavoured to drown all clear remembrance in 
copious draughts of fiery fluid. To-night, as he wan- 
dered from one to another of his usual haunts, the mis- 
erable futility of the life he led came before him for the 
first time. In the clear eyes of a girl he saw himself mir- 
rored and shrank in horror and disgust at the reflection. 

In his thirty-first year, what was he but a homeless 
waif, a gaol-bird and a drunkard, subsisting upon charity, 
and biting the hand that fed him? Wallace buried his 
head in his hands and groaned aloud at the thought. 
Among the common and degraded persons by whom he 
was surrounded not one dared to ask what ailed him, for 
his surly and insolent temper was well known. Looking 
up and around him, he felt that he hated his compan- 
ions, and that the coarse joviality which he had hitherto 
commended as unconventional was mere forced drunken 
buffoonery. Lina Grahame would know her contempt 
to be justified could she see him among such surround- 
ings. With a muttered oath, and leaving his glass un- 
emptied, he strode out again into the night. The fog 
got into his throat and choked him, the streets were de- 
serted, but for a passing policeman on his beat and a few 
pedestrians loudly complaining of the bitter frost and 
hurrying home. 

Home! Wallace had no home. His landlady had 
already more than once given him notice to quit ; there 
would certainly be neither fire nor welcome awaiting 
him there. As to his uncle’s house, he could indeed slip 
18 * 


o 


210 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


in there on the sly ; but he had given his word to his 
cousin not to present himself there when he had been 
drinking too freely, and of a certainty he had been 
drinking too freely to-night. 

What right had Lorin to extract such a promise — 
Lorin, to whom drink offered no temptation? What 
right had such a man to make rules of conduct for 
others ? Doubtless he was sitting comfortably by the 
fire in his well-furnished rooms, thinking of Lina Gra- 
hame, and writing letters to her, or reading hers to him, 
or perhaps sketching her portrait. Warmth and com- 
fort, the glow of the fire, and sweet thoughts of his love 
for him ; the cold and dirty streets, the fog and frost, 
the flaring lights of a gin palace, and the thought of a 
woman’s scorn, for his cousin. Yery soon Lorin would 
marry, and then his, Wallace’s, surreptitious visits to his 
uncle’s house would be forbidden altogether. He could 
hear the voice in which she would speak the order con- 
cerning them. 

“ Lorin dear, you must really keep your cousin away. 
His very appearance is a disgrace to you. He is not fit 
to enter a gentleman’s house.” 

In some such words she would speak, in that voice 
which to Wallace was like an echo from the past. And 
to-morrow she would tell Lorin about his disreputable 
cousin’s visit, while she twined her arms about his neck 
and clung to him as she had clung to Wallace that even- 
ing when she had mistaken his identity. 

He could feel the clasp of her fingers upon his shoul- 
ders now, and the silky softness of her hair as he stroked 
it, and the quiver that ran through her frame as he 
clasped her supple waist. She loved Lorin — there was 
little doubt of that. Passionate love thrilled through 
her touch, thrilled in her voice when she murmured — 

“ You have come at last !” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


211 


No good woman had ever loved him — no good woman 
had ever clung to him and welcomed his coming with 
such whole-hearted delight. What had that little witch 
woman prophesied about him ? 

“Your past has been stormy. Your future looks 
black. Only one thing can save you — the love of a pure, 
good woman.” 

The fact that he was really married seldom if ever 
troubled him. If it came into his mind at all, the 
remembrance provoked only curses on the head of his 
missing wife. Had she only proved reasonable, he might 
now have been installed with her in that very house at 
Hampstead which would soon be prepared for the recep- 
tion of Lorin and his bride. Wallace cursed them both 
as he thought of them and of the happiness that awaited 
them. Fate had been against him, luck had been against 
him. His evil instincts, his ungovernable temper, his 
hatred of authority and love of violent pleasures, had 
been born with him and had led him on to the ship- 
wreck of his life. 

Only the love of a good woman could save him, Mrs. 
Yandeleur had said. But good women looked at him 
with the eyes of Lina Grahame. 

“ Curse her !” he muttered, as he tossed down the raw 
spirit in his glass. “I wish, with all my soul, that I 
could do her an injury!” 


\ 

CHAPTEE XXII. 

When Laline left the study and fled up-stairs to her 
room, she had by no means terminated her adventures 
for the day. 

At first she could do nothing but sit with her hands 


212 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


tightly clasped in her lap, half-numbed by the extent of 
her misfortune. Her folly in failing to distinguish be- 
tween the two cousins appeared to her now equally inex- 
cusable and incomprehensible. Gradually, as she col- 
lected in her mind the evidence upon which she had 
acted, a conviction strengthened within her mind that 
she had been only too desirous of deceiving herself. 

“ I loved him, and so I persisted in believing he was 
my husband !” was the despairing cry of her heart. She 
had fallen in love at first with the younger Wallace 
Armstrong, and had encouraged herself in loving him 
by assuring herself that she was his wife already. This 
was now the first week in February, the month in 
which they were to have been married. Laline sprang 
from her chair at the thought and pressed her hands to 
her burning cheeks. 

“ How can I tell him ?” she cried aloud. “ How can I 
say that I must break it otf and that we must never 
meet again, when only yesterday I kissed him and let 
him kiss me, and promised to be his wife ? It is all hor- 
rible — impossible ! What excuse can I give that he will 
believe ? I cannot go to him and say, ‘ I will not marry 
him because I am his cousin’s wife !’ Ho one must ever 
know that. I would a thousand times rather die at this 
moment than be claimed by that horrible man, the very 
sight of whom turns me sick with disgust and hate! 
How could I ever think that Lorin, my Lorin, could 
have acted like that at Boulogne, could have ever been 
a gambler and a forger, ungrateful, deceitful, selfish, dis- 
sipated, and worthless?” 

A wave of joy passed over her heart, in spite of her 
grief and perplexity, at the thought that the man she 
loved was in very truth the honourable and chivalrous 
gentleman Mrs. Yandeleur had declared him to be. Like 
Tennyson’s “ Lily maid of Astolat,” Laline felt it was — 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


213 


* ‘ Her glory to have loved 
One peerless, without stain.” 

She had been ready to take him as her husband in 
spite of all she remembered and all she heard against 
him, but now that she knew his record to be absolutely 
clear she loved him the more. Tears rushed from her 
eyes as she realised that the happy life they had planned 
together could never be theirs. She must banish him 
from her sight ; or, if he would not obey her entreaties 
ana commands, she must herself pass out of his life and 
begin a new career in some place out of his reach and 
ken. 

Until she met him, the prospect of a busy existence 
uncheered by the love of a man had not appeared spe- 
cially formidable to Laline. But now her future life 
seemed to stretch before her as an arid plain, cheerless, 
and dreary, the mere thought of which made her 
shudder. 

“ I cannot live without him !” she sobbed. “ I cannot 
live without his love ! Why did he come into my life 
at all, if it was only to offer me a taste of happiness 
which I must never hope for again ? It is too hard, too 
cruel!” 

Rebellious, passionate thoughts rose in her mind, 
thoughts at which her own soul took fright. Through 
the fog the church-bells pealed out, faint and muffled ; 
but Laline grew calmer at the sound. Her early train- 
ing had been deeply religious, and now, in this hour of 
loneliness and despair, she sought comfort and refuge 
from her distracting grief in the service of the church. 

Hastily slipping on her hat and cloak and the furs 
which Lorin had bought for her on the preceding day, 
she hurried down the stairs and out of the house un- 
noticed by any of the other inmates. To her aching 


214 


TIER FAIRY PRINCE. 


heart and tired brain the quiet of the sacred building, 
the dignified yet simple words of the service she knew 
so well, and the sermon, taken from a beautiful passage 
in St. John’s Gospel, proved infinitely soothing, and the 
mere act of supplication brought with it a sense of 
strength and coming help. 

She had prayed to be taught what was her duty, and 
rising from her knees at the close of the service, tired 
out with the emotions of the day and very pale, her 
eyes red with long weeping and her lips quivering in 
the endeavour to keep back her tears, she passed out of 
the church with the rest of the congregation. 

A walk of a very few minutes led to the opening of 
St. Mary’s Crescent, and Laline was hastening thither, a 
little dazed by the fog and darkness after the brightly- 
lighted church, when some one laid a hand upon her 
shoulder. 

“ At last, my darling !” 

She had known by his touch, which thrilled her with 
delight, that it was Lorin even before she had seen or 
heard him ; and in the first moment of joy at the unex- 
pected meeting she turned on him a face radiant with 
love and welcome. The light from a gas-lamp at the 
side of the pavement fell full upon her, and Lorin started 
back. 

“ My darling, how pale you are ! And you have been 
crying ! What has troubled you ?” 

His words recalled the truth to her. She turned away 
and strove to answer coldly. 

“ My head aches this evening,” she said. “ 1 must get 
off to bed early. I — I dare say it is the fog.” 

“Let me come in with you and speak to Mrs. Yan- 
deleur about you. I have a great deal to say to 
ter.” 

“ No, no — not to-night, and not until you have spoken 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


215 


to me first ! You must come to-morrow and have a long 
talk with me. It is too late now, and I feel ill and tired 
— very tired !” 

He drew her hand tenderly through his arm. 

“ You are crying again, my dear one !” he said. “ I 
have a right to know what is troubling you. Let me 
take you home and stay with you a little while. Mrs. 
Vandeleur will, I am sure, excuse the informality of the 
visit now that she knows that we are so soon to be 
married.” 

“ She knows nothing of all that.” 

“ What ? You have not told her ?” 

“ Hot yet. Don’t be vexed, Lorin. I have not even 
seen her since you left me at the door last night.” 

“ Well, at least you have told Miss Cavan?” 

“ Yes,” Laline admitted, reluctantly, “ I did say some- 
thing about you to Miss Cavan.” 

“Something about me? Well, I suppose I must be 
content with that! But, Lina dear, are you so very 
much ashamed of me that you don’t like to mention to 
any one that we are engaged ?” 

“ Ho, of course not ! How can you ask such an absurd 
question ! But” — and here Laline was seized by a bril- 
liant idea — “you know Mrs. Vandeleur will be very 
much annoyed at the idea of losing me just when I am 
beginning to be so useful to her as a secretary. We are 
exceedingly busy over her two books, and she has often 
told me that my value to her lies in the fact that my 
mind is not distracted by thoughts of love or money. 
She has been exceedingly kind to me, and it really seems 
too bad to talk about leaving her to get married almost 
as soon as we have started comfortably working together. 
It isn’t fair to her, you see.” 

She spoke very fast, and lowered her head that he 
might not see the anxiety and distress in her eyes. 


216 


HER FAIRY PRINCE: 


He laughed and drew her arm closer against his. 

“ Hot fair to her 1” he said. “ How about being fair to 
me? Which is the more important — that Mrs. Vandeleur 
should lose an amanuensis to assist her in the compila- 
tion of her interesting but mischievous mysticism, or 
that you and I should miss the happiness of both our 
lives? Under the circumstances I should say it was 
rather wise of her to foretell terrible troubles to you 
should you fall in love. You are in love, I hope, dearest I 
And where are all these prophesied griefs and woes ? 
Ho future can look brighter than ours.” 

She shuddered and clung closer to his arm. If he 
only knew ! 

“ My uncle,” Lorin continued, “ is in the highest state 
of delight about our coming marriage. He wants you 
to have luncheon with him to-morrow. Bring Mrs. 
Yandeleur, if she will come at such short notice; but 
don’t disappoint him. He was most anxious that I 
should bring you round to-day to receive his congratula- 
tions. I told him you had forbidden me to call until 
Monday. What I did not tell him was that I have been 
hanging round St. Mary’s Crescent at intervals the 
whole day, hoping to catch you as you went in or out. 
I had a presentiment that you would be in trouble or low 
spirits, the result, I suppose, of a bad dream I had about 
you last night.” 

“ What was that ?” 

“ Oh, just as utterly meaningless and inconsequent as 
are most dreams ! I thought I was in a forest, looking 
for you and following you. Every now and then I 
caught a glimpse of your white dress — you wore that 
gown you had on when I first saw you — glimmering 
through an opening in the trees. But as soon as I 
dashed forward in pursuit the branches closed together, 
as in the £ Sleeping Beauty’ story, and you were lost to 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 217 

me again, while the whole wood seemed filled with mock- 
ing laughter.” 

“What sort of laughter?” she inquired, eagerly. 
“ Was it like the laughter of any one you know ?” 

“ Why do you ask ? Perhaps it was — a little. But, 
Lina dear, you are trembling. It is horribly selfish of 
me to keep you walking about in the fog when you told 
me you were so tired ! Let me take you home !” 

“ Ho — not yet, Lorin ! I have a great deal to say to 
you, and I must say it now while no one can hear me. 
I — I have been thinking deeply all to-day, and I have 
decided that you and I have been too hasty — we have not 
given ourselves time to know our own minds.” 

“Wait!” he exclaimed. “I felt sure something was 
weighing on your mind ; but I can’t listen here in the 
noise of the streets. Wo will pass into the Park while 
you tell me.” 

They had reached the Albert Hall, and he led her at 
this point into Hyde Park, deserted but for a few devoted 
sweethearts, as regardless as themselves of the cold and 
fog and frost. 

“ How tell me again, dear,” he said, gently, “ what you 
have to say about our engagement !” 

In the obscurity he slipped his arm about her waist, 
and at his touch a restful delight crept over her senses. 
For a few seconds she kept silence. Yery soon they 
must part, and with a whole lifetime of dreary loveless- 
ness before her, surely she might without great sin 
afford herself the momentary joy of revelling in his 
caresses. 

But duty, stern and forbidding, lay before her, and 
suddenly nerving herself to the effort, she drew away 
from him. 

“ I have something to say to you,” she began, “ and I 
want you to walk quietly by my side listening, and not 
k 19 


218 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


to touch me while I speak. Lorin, we have made a great 
mistake ; I, at least, know that I was only flirting with 
you. I had made up my mind before I met you not 
to marry, and I am still of the same mind. Let us just 
be friends again !” 

“Never! We never have been friends, my darling, 
and we never can be ! I loved you from the first moment 
when I heard your voice, from the first moment when I 
saw your face in the full lamplight. I was never your 
friend only, and I never shall be. I was and am your 
lover, and I shall be your husband !” 

“ I was only flirting !” she cried in desperation. “ I 
thought you were in love with Clare Cavan ! You flirted 
with her, I flirted with you. I — I have no real feeling 
for you at all ! It was just a little petty triumph to get 
you away from her !” 

The words died on her lips. He had stopped in the 
middle of the gravel-path and had drawn up her hands 
upon his shoulders. 

“ I told you not to touch me !” she faltered. 

“ Lina,” he whispered, “ Lina dear, even in fun I can’t 
let you speak of yourself like that !” 

He drew her tenderly into his arms Her heart was 
beating madly and convulsive sobs began to shake her 
frame. 

“ Why do you torment me ?” she cried, breaking into a 
storm of tears. “ Can’t you see that I am in earnest — 
that I am trying to find any excuse to free myself from 
my promise to you? I cannot marry you — I will not 
marry you! It is of no use to ask me for reasons! 
On my word of honour I am in earnest — I was never 
more in earnest in my life ! It has all been a mistake 
from the beginning. I can never be your wife !” 

“Lina!” 

“ It is of no use,” she cried, hysterically, “ to remon- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


219 


strate with me or to appeal to my feelings. I have no 
feelings where men are concerned. I was always a flirt 
— Mrs. Melville could have told you that. At Norwood 
the foreign masters used to propose to me ; but I never 
cared. It is all vanity with me and I don’t know what 
love means !” 

“ Lina!” 

“ Oh, don’t stand repeating my name like that ! It 
would be more dignified if you got angry. But nothing 
can make any difference. You might spend the rest of 
your life and mine on your knees to me, but I cannot 
marry you — cannot! Do you understand, Mr. Arm- 
strong ? It is all over, this love-story of ours, and all 
we have to do now is to forget it !” 

Through all the hysterical excitement of her talk 
there rang a note of despair which Lorin failed not 
to recognise and for which he was greatly at a loss to 
account. 

“ Lina,” he said, again, “ you are ill and unstrung ; you 
don’t know what you are saying. Something very seri- 
ous has happened to trouble you to-day. Presently, 
when you feel better and calmer, you must tell me all 
about it. But, my darling, it is useless to try and per- 
suade me that you did not love me yesterday or that you 
do not love me now !” 

“ I do not !” 

“ Lina, it is horribly dark and foggy and you don’t see 
very well with those lovely, tearful eyes of yours. But 
look up now into my face, with your hands in mine — so 
— and your heart beating near mine, and tell me again 
that you do not love me !” 

She stood still as he directed, and, clasping her hands, 
he held them up against his breast. Her face was ashen 
pale and even her lips were white. She strove to keep 
up the pitch of unnatural nervous excitement to which 


220 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


she had worked herself; but gradually, as he clasped 
her hands close in his, he felt their tension relax. Her 
form lost its defiant erectness ; she quivered and swayed 
towards him, and would have fallen had he not caught 
her in his arms. 

“ Oh, Lorin, Lorin, I am so unhappy ! I think my 
heart will break !” 

Very weak and pitiful her accents sounded now as, 
like a tired child, she rested her cheek upon his shoulder 
for a few seconds, weeping bitterly. Lorin asked her 
no questions and contented himself with gently soothing 
her. Presently her sobs ceased, and suddenly raising 
her head, she tried to laugh. 

“ It’s like a servant on her £ Sunday out,’ isn’t it,” she 
said, with a feeble attempt at cheerfulness, “ to meet my 
‘young man’ after church, and walk in Hyde Park, with 
his arm round my waist, crying ? Servants, when they 
get engaged, always cry a great deal. I remember when 
our parlour-maid at Norwood got engaged to the baker, 
she used to shed floods of tears in the pantry, and even 
weep while waiting at table. She and her young man 
were perpetually having what she called ‘ words’ — about 
three times a week it used to happen — and then Emma 
cried her eyes out until they made it up. And after all 
she married the postman.” 

“ W ell, and, now that we have had our ‘ words,’ darling, 
and you have had your weeping, and we have made it 
up, since we are having our ‘ Sunday evening out’ in the 
Park, and it’s so dark one can’t see across the road, you 
must kiss me in sign of reconciliation.” 

But she shrank away from him, remembering, with a 
pang, that she was another man’s wife, and that her love 
for Lorin was no longer a pride to her but a grievous 
fault. 

“Not now,” she said ; and then, before he had time to 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


221 


complain of her coldness, she suddenly asked him why 
he had never, in speaking to her, alluded to his name- 
sake and cousin. 

Lorin did not answer for a moment, and when he spoke, 
it was in a somewhat constrained tone. 

“I may not have mentioned him by name,” he said, 
“ but we have certainly alluded to him in our conversa- 
tions. I have spoken to you of the responsibility I 
undertook more than five years ago, when I brought my 
cousin over from Boulogne to England after his wife’s 
death ” 

“ You brought him over?” 

“ Yes. Uncle Alec thought he had reason to distrust 
him ; but I believed my cousin’s letters and went to him. 
It was a very sad and painful experience in many ways. 
He had only been married a month when the poor girl 
died. I was shown her grave and a picture of her, 
painted when she was a child. She must have been 
very pretty; but from what my cousin subsequently 
told me, I should say that she and old Garth, who called 
himself her uncle, but who impressed me very unfavour- 
ably, and who, I strongly suspect, was really her father, 
were nothing better than a couple of needy and swindling 
adventurers. Wallace always speaks of them both with 
intense bitterness ; but Uncle Alec has never heard him, 
and persists in believing that this Laline is an angel of 
goodness, and that, had she lived, Wallace would have 
been very different. And I think he is probably right. 
A good wife is a man’s salvation if she will only cling to 
him through good report and ill, and may well redeem 
him by her unselfish love.” 

“ You overrate me, I know,” Laline said, in a stifled 
voice, “ and think me much better than I am. Tell me 
truly, Lorin, knowing me and knowing him, do you 
think that if your cousin Wallace had been married to 
19 * 


222 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


me, for instance, he would have been induced to lead a 
better life ?” 

He pressed both her hands tightly in his. 

“It seems sacrilege,” he exclaimed, “to think of you 
as married to him ! But I believe that, if you had met 
him at the time I speak of, you might have saved him.” 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

Lorin little guessed how his words, “You might 
have saved him,” concerning his cousin Wallace stung 
Laline. 

It was a view of the matter which had never presented 
itself to her that she had failed in her duty when she 
fled from her husband and her father at Boulogne. The 
formal and business-like contract before the Consul had 
meant so little to her, and the shock of discovering Wal- 
lace’s real feelings and character was so great, that flight 
seemed the only course open to her at the time. But 
now, from the mouth of the man she loved, she heard 
the first judgment and condemnation of her conduct 
which had ever reached her, and as she walked on in 
silence by his side in her heart she rebelled against the 
sentence. 

She was so young. What possible influence could a 
girl of sixteen have had over a man of determined tem- 
per and confirmed bad habits such as Wallace Arm- 
strong? He did not even love her. Had she not heard 
him avow to her father that he considered her in the 
light of an encumbrance ? More than that — his words 
had clearly foreshadowed the rough and even brutal 
treatment she would receive should she refuse to tell a 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


223 


series of lies to gain his ends. And by her help he had 
attained them. He had been taken to England, had 
been received into his uncle’s house and given that start 
in life of which he professed to stand in need. Had she 
sacrificed her life to him as well, what more could he 
have secured ? He had had his chance and had miserably 
failed to make use of it. With a wife or without a wife, 
in all probability he would still have been the same 
worthless, reckless, ne’er-do-weel he had that evening 
shown himself to be. 

Another point presented itself clearly to Laline in the 
pause that followed Lorin’s speech. It was evident that 
he had formed an unfavourable opinion of his cousin’s 
lost bride. On the strength of the falsified certificate 
and Wallace’s misrepresentations he believed that she 
had been married for rather more than a month before 
she died. Should Laline therefore have been minded 
to tell him the whole truth, she would not only have 
had the greatest difficulty in making it credible and 
comprehensible to him, but she would have had to 
persuade him, in the face of her husband’s and her 
late father’s testimony and that of the certificate, that 
she had never been more than a nominal wife to his 
cousin. 

A hot blush enveloped her from head to foot at the 
thought. Lorin was inclined to be jealous. How would 
he ever believe her again when he recalled her oft-re- 
peated assertions that never before had she known the 
happiness of loving and being loved, and that his kisses 
were the first she had ever received, in the face of the 
fact of that early marriage ? 

To confide in him was clearly impossible. From what 
he had already stated as his opinions he might even think 
it right for her to go back to her husband, a course of 
which the mere idea sickened and terrified her. And 


224 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


yet, while he ignored the fact of her marriage, how 
could she possibly sever the link between them ? 

“ Lorin,” she asked him, suddenly, “ what would you 
do, loving me as you say you do — and I believe you — if 
some terrible obstacle were to come between us ?” 

“ I should fight against it until it was destroyed, of 
course.” 

“ .No — don’t answer lightly. I am in earnest — in ter- 
rible earnest ! Suppose it was with you as with some 
people in a book I read not long ago — that you had, 
while very young, contracted a marriage, a wholly un- 
suitable marriage, with a woman, whom you had left 
immediately because you found you had been terribly 
mistaken in her ; suppose that you saw and heard noth- 
ing of her for years, and that then, having good reason 
for believing your wife dead, you had met me — just as 
you did, you know — and had grown to love me, as a 
man can love, with all your heart and mind and soul ?” 

“Well?” 

“ Then — say, at just this point where we are now — 
either to-night or to-morrow — say that you learned that 
the woman you married was not dead, but that, so far 
from wanting you, she ignored your existence, that she 
was practically insane, and that you could neither get 
free from her nor render her the least assistance, what 
would you do? Now think well, dearest, before you 
answer, for a great deal depends upon it.” 

“ What can you mean ?” 

“ Nothing ; but that, much as I love you, I can’t love 
you wholly unless I understand you wholly. Remember 
how short a time we have really known each other. I 
know you always tell me the truth ; and so, by putting 
these imaginary cases and learning how you would act 
in them, I can grow to understand you better. Tell me 
what you would do ?” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


225 


“ It’s so difficult to say,” he answered, after a short 
pause, knitting his brows. “And you have made it 
more difficult by something you have just said — ‘ I know 
you always tell me the truth.’ A man might be terribly 
tempted in such a case as you described to say nothing, 
and to seize his happiness while it lay within reach. 
Life is so short and happiness so hard to get. But, if 
a woman trusted a man as you say you trust me, 
that would be a cowardly and treacherous act towards 
her.” 

“ How, cowardly and treacherous if it made her 
happy — if it would have broken her heart to part from 
him?” 

“ My darling, you are exciting yourself very unneces- 
sarily over these imaginary difficulties! There are 
actually tears in your eyes ! Surely life has enough 
worries without inventing others ? Let us dismiss the 
subject and be happy together while we may.” 

“ I can’t be happy unless you satisfy me. I am fanci- 
ful to-night, I know, but my head aches ; and — and please 
humour me, Lorin dear, and answer me about yourself 
and what you would do. Don’t say ‘ a man might,’ but 
‘ I should do’ so and so. Think again ! If you told me 
the truth in such a case, 1 suppose the only word you 
could expect would be 1 Good-bye ’ ?” 

“ I wonder,” he said, thoughtfully — “ I wonder if you 
would say that ?” 

“Ho — X shouldn’t — I couldn’t!” she cried, suddenly 
clinging to his arm. “ And if I refused to part from 
you, knowing all, what would you do ?” 

“ I suppose a man ought to protect a woman even 
against herself,” he replied. “ But I don’t like to think 
of what I might do if losing you were at stake. You 
see, Lina, I have been waiting for you all my life ; and 
I am twenty-eight this year— approaching middle life, in 
p 


226 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


fact. Women have often charmed and interested me. 
I have wanted to talk to them, to sketch them, to look 
at them, hut never to marry them. But as soon as I 
saw your face, and even before I saw it, when I had 
only stood near you and heard you speak, a voice within 
me said, ‘ That is my wife.’ If you had been in quite 
another rank of life it would have been the same. Had 
you been a princess of the blood-royal or a laundress, 
I should have had to what is called ‘ make a fool of my- 
self’ for you. I was bound to follow you, to tell you of 
my love, to try and make you love me, but in any case to 
marry you. There was nothing else to be done, even if 
it involved Israel’s seven years’ courtship, though I should 
certainly have rebelled against such a long engagement ! 
All my nature cried out for you. It is not only your 
beauty — though I love that most heartily — but it is the 
beautiful soul looking from your eyes that I love. Your 
voice, your touch, your presence, your mind and thoughts, 
are all just what I have dreamed of as my ideal, 
just what I require to make my life complete. Selfish 
that sounds, doesn’t it? But I could not quite feel all 
that unless you had almost equal need of me. That is 
why I say that nothing must part us ; and it would be 
not only folly but absolute wickedness either for you or 
for me to try to break the bond between us.” 

“Even if either of us was — married?” she faltered 
almost inaudibly. 

“ To some one else ? But that would be impossible. I 
could not have felt as I did about you if I had not been, 
as you have often told me, the first and only man who 
ever spoke to you of love ; nor could your eyes have 
met mine as they did and shown me your sweet child- 
mind shining through had you ever before cared for any 
man. There — are all your questions answered, and all 
your doubts set at rest?” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 227 

“Yes — I suppose so,” she conceded. “I am tired, 
Lorin. Take me home now.” 

They passed out of the Park into the high road, and 
she walked by his side in silence while he spoke to her, 
tentatively at first, but with more assurance as she did 
not attempt to interrupt him, concerning their future 
plans, gently urging her to fix the exact date of their 
wedding. 

“ It seems odd that Mrs. Yandeleur should know noth- 
ing as yet direct from you about our engagement,” he 
said ; “ but of course as you have not seen her that could 
not be helped. She will be in when you return, no 
doubt ; and then you can tell her and arrange about tho 
purchase of this wonderful trousseau which seems to 
trouble you so much. Surely a fortnight will be amply 
sufficient to buy all the finery you want ? My uncle 
sends you, with his love, a blank cheque, to be filled in 
with what amount you please. Shall I give it to you 
now, or will you take it to-morrow when you are coming 
to luncheon with us ?” 

“Oh, to-morrow — to-morrow!” she answered, hur- 
riedly, snatching at the chance of deferring that expla- 
nation which sooner or later was bound to come. 

If she could only put off the marriage indefinitely the 
while she could enjoy the solace of Lorin’s society, she 
told herself she would be well content. 

“We are so happy as we are,” she observed, presently, 
“ that it seems to me to be very silly to hurry to another 
state of things. Old married people always look back 
to their courting days as to the happiest period of their 
lives. Personally I don’t in the least want to be mar- 
ried for years to come. We can be dear friends and 
companions, and can meet when we please ” 

“ That is not nearly enough for me,” he interrupted. 
“ It is like offering a starving man a caramel to expect 


228 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


me to be satisfied with seeing you occasionally. I must 
not only see you all the time, but you must belong to me 
and I to you. My friend Robert Browning, whom you 
must grow to read and love, has glorified married love, 
which is the only happy love, in some of the finest lines 
ever written. Listen ! 

“ 1 Life will just hold out the proving both our powers, alone and 
blended ; 

And then, come next life quickly ! This world’s use will have 
been ended.’ ” 

A sob rose in Laline’s throat as Lorin, holding her 
hand close within his arm, bent his head to murmur the 
words in her ear. The picture they presented before 
her mind’s eye was tantalisingly happy, and yet it was 
just such perfect happiness that she must nerve herself 
to banish from her life. Tears blinded her as, with 
lowered head, she walked on by his side. 

They had by this time reached the High Street, 
deserted at this late hour on Sunday night but for a 
small group of dirty loiterers outside a public-house, 
from the doors of which a man was apparently being 
forcibly thrown. 

Laline, who had a feminine terror of drunken men, 
clung closer to Lorin’ s arm ; but as he moved quickly to 
the outer edge of the pavement in order to give the 
group a wide berth, she felt him suddenly start violently, 
and looking up, perceived that he was frowning heavily 
and that he wore a look of deep annoyance. 

Following the direction of his eyes, Laline instantly 
understood the cause of his vexation ; for the man who, 
lividly pale and madly intoxicated, was struggling in the 
grasp of three others, shouting curses and dealing mur- 
derous blows to right and left of him, was Wallace Am. 
strong, Lorin’s cousin and her husband. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


229 


Tightening the pressure of her hand within his arm, 
Lorin was hurrying Laline past the shameful spectacle, 
when she suddenly stopped him. 

“Leave me,” she whispered, with pale lips — “go to 
him ! Take him away before he does more mischief I” 

Lorin stared at her in astonishment. 

“ What — do you know ” he began, when she cut 

him short. 

“ I know everything. Leave me and take him 
home !” 

Then, before he could speak, she drew her hand from 
his arm and flew rather than walked the short distance 
to St. Mary’s Crescent. 

Once she had re-entered the house and gained the pri- 
vacy of her own room, she threw herself face downwards 
on the bed, feeling utterly worn out and exhausted by the 
experiences of the past twenty-four hours. Before her 
closed eyes two faces arose in the darkness — those of the 
man she loved and the man who was her husband. 

As she had last seen them, so they flitted before her, 
Lorin’s face clouded by a look of distress and indigna- 
tion, which changed to deep tenderness as his eyes met 
hers, and Wallace’s distorted by drink and by fury, as she 
had seen it years ago upon her wedding-day and again 
beheld it on this eventful evening. 

And as she marked the contrast between them and 
compared her instinctive dislike and disgust in the pres- 
ence of her husband with the passionate delight which 
thrilled her at the proximity of her lover, a temptation 
stole into her mind and grew stronger every moment. 

Why, she asked herself, should not the dead past bury 
its dead ? Laline Armstrong had disappeared — W allace 
himself had given out that she was dead and his cousin 
and uncle believed him. She would even have some 
difficulty in proving her identity ; and without the testi- 
20 


230 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


mony of Mrs. Melville, between whom and herself many 
miles of ocean rolled, she would find it almost impossible 
to connect Lina Grahame with Laline Garth. The latter 
was dead and her actions had died with her. Why 
should she, Lina Grahame, hesitate to marry the man she 
loved because that dead Laline had once gone through 
a form of marriage with his cousin ? 

It was quite clear that Wallace did not recognise his 
over-grown child-bride in the tall and slender woman 
who was engaged to his cousin ; and even Lorin, who 
had at first been haunted by her likeness to a portrait 
he had seen of Laline as a child, failed to recall where 
the picture had met his eyes. Only her own word could 
betray her, and that word she was strenuously resolved 
not to utter. 

Surely — surely, she argued, as she lay there like some 
dead thing, scarcely breathing, so intent she was in 
thought, she would be committing no great sin if she 
ignored the past ? It was not as if Wallace wanted her, 
remembered her, or had even ever loved her. Wallace 
was hopeless ; and she almost wondered now at her own 
conduct when she despatched Lorin to his cousin’s aid 
that night. Was she to spoil Lorin’s life, and her own 
as well, for the sake of a degraded and drunken creature, 
alike incapable of gratitude and of love ? 

And yet the next moment, through all her horror of 
the man, there shone a gleam of compassion. Was it 
.wholly his own fault that he was a pariah, driven to 
herd with social outcasts, to sit and drink his brains 
away amid tavern surroundings ? To her personally, in 
those far-away Boulogne days, he had seemed extremely 
kind. She well remembered the treats he had given her 
and the children, the drives and sweets and pastry, and 
the pretty things he had bought for her. Her childish 
mind had been fascinated and interested by the man 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 231 

whose sable locks and stalwart frame reminded her of 
Brian de Bois-Guilbert. 

Since those days he had indeed degenerated rapidly ; 
but some good there must certainly be in him, or he could 
not have retained through all these years the atfection 
of his uncle and his cousin. Her own father, too, had 
helped to ruin him as a very young man ; and it was to 
settle debts incurred in Captain Garth’s gaming estab- 
lishment that Wallace had committed the forgery which 
first brought about his banishment from his native land. 

These thoughts tortured Laline ; and through the long 
hours of the night she lay awake, torn by conflicting 
sentiments of pity for Lorin, pity for herself, and pity 
for her husband. Towards morning she had half de- 
cided on flight as the sole way out of her difficulties, 
until the thought of a confession to old Alexander Wal- 
lace of all but the name of her husband suggested itself 
as an alternative course. 

Throughout the wakeful hours she strove to fight 
down the insidious temptation to hold her peace and ful- 
fil her engagement with the man she loved. Ho happi- 
ness could come, she repeatedly reminded herself, of a 
union founded on a lie. And how could she ever meet 
Lorin’s eyes and hear him asseverate his trust and his 
belief in her with such a secret between them ? 

So all through the night the turmoil of her mind en- 
dured ; and, when she rose in the morning, it was with 
the feeling that many years of thought and suffering had 
passed over her head. 

Hot one word of Lorin did she speak to Mrs. Yande- 
leur when she asked permission to go out to luncheon ; 
and, once arrived at the bank, she half dreaded meeting 
him. Adams, the sedate-looking man-servant, showed 
her into the cosy sitting-room up-stairs, in which tea had 
been served on the occasion of her former visit. 


232 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


A man, who was seated by the fire, with his back to 
the door, reading a newspaper, rose on her entrance and 
faced her. And Laline saw, to her intense vexation and 
alarm, that it was not Lorin, but his cousin Wallace 
Armstrong. 


CHAPTER XX I Y. 

The colour fled from Laline’s face as she found herself 
in the full daylight face to face with the man whom of 
all the world she least wished to meet. 

Wallace on his part was deeply moved by her beauty, 
by the grace and refinement that distinguished her, and 
stirred to wonder where he had met the direct gaze of 
those wistful hazel eyes before. A sleepless night, to- 
gether with the emotions she had recently experienced, 
rendered Laline unusually pale ; but her pallor and ex- 
treme slightness only served to emphasise the spirituality 
and fragility of her appearance ; and, standing there be- 
fore him in her broad-brimmed black-velvet hat and rich 
furs, she looked like one of Gainsborough’s dainty great 
ladies come to life in modern costume. 

But the daylight, which revealed no flaw in the girl’s 
clear skin and delicate features, touched the man less be- 
comingly. Hard living had furrowed his face and prema- 
turely silvered his hair and the light in his eyes was 
fitful and sunken. He looked what he was — the wreck 
of a man gifted by nature with exceptional strength and 
beauty, one who should have been a king among men, 
but who had let himself drift downward to the dregs of 
society. 

He would have held out his hand, but her cold glance 
and still colder bow restrained him. An angry flush 
passed over his face as he noted them. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


233 


“ Oh, I remember !” he said, trying to speak with de- 
fiant carelessness. “ We insulted each other at our last 
merry meeting, didn’t we, Miss Graham? But won’t 
you let by-gones be by-gones ?” 

“I expected to meet Mr. Wallace and his nephew,” 
she said icily, turning away that he might no longer 
study her face. She was trembling with excitement and 
nervousness and almost sick with fear lest he should 
recognise her. But her secret alarm was only indicated 
by an unsympathetic staccato of utterance. 

“My cousin was telegraphed for to the City this 
morning, and cannot be here for at least half an hour. 
As to my uncle, he is at present in his rooms, and I have 
given particular instructions that he is not to know that 
you are here.” 

She turned upon him, white with indignant surprise. 

“Do I understand you to say that you have given 
such an order ?” she inquired. 

“Yes,” 

“ May I ask, Mr. Armstrong, your reason for taking so 
extraordinary a step ?” 

“ I wanted to talk to you.” 

Laline’s heart sank within her. Surely he could not 
have recognised her ? 

“ I have not the slightest wish for any conversation 
with you, Mr. Armstrong !” she said, in a voice which it 
needed all her self-control to render firm. “ May I ask 
you to ring the bell, that the servant may inform Mr. 
Alexander Wallace that I am here?” 

“Wait a minute I I want to go back to something 
you said the last time I saw you J” 

“ There is no need, and I must decline to discuss the 
subject. If you do not ring the bell, Mr. Armstrong, I 
shall!” 

She moved quickly towards the fireplace. She was 
20 * 


234 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


horribly afraid of being left alone with him. Something 
in his coarse and masterful personality affected her with 
a sense of mingled fear and repulsion, and it seemed 
difficult for her to breathe the same air with him. 

“ I want,” he repeated, doggedly, coming between her 
and the fireplace, “ to speak to you about what you said 
when I last saw you.” 

“ Pardon me,” she exclaimed, flashing a look of deep 
scorn upon him, “ that was not the last time I saw you ! 
Much later, between ten and eleven at night, I was pass- 
ing along the High Street, Kensington, and I saw you 
again !” 

She lowered her voice on the last words, and a deep 
blush of shame for him passed over her face. Wallace 
saw the colour, and recognised the sentiment that called 
it there. Something like a flush crossed his face too. 

“ So you were with Lorin,” he said. “ I thought as 
much ! All the more reason why I should speak to you. 
Miss Grahame, it was you who drove me to drink last 
night — you and no one else !” 

For almost the first time in her life Laline smiled 
satirically. Clearly she did not believe him. 

“ It is true, all the same,” he said, answering her look. 
“When Lorin got me out of that hole last night — and I 
admit he’s had to do the same thing before — he took me 
home to my diggings ; and presently, when I had had a 
cooling draught and put my head under the tap, it came 
out in a little talk that I had called on that table-rapping 
little woman yesterday afternoon in order to have a 
look at you. Then, for once in his life, my immaculate 
cousin lost his temper. I have hardly ever seen him so 
angry. It appears that he had been trying hard to keep 
me dark. Such men as I, he had the impudence to tell 
me, were not fit to cross the paths of such women as 
you, and it was sacrilege for me even to mention your 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


235 


name. ‘ Now I know why she wanted to break off her 
engagement with me!’ he cried out. ‘She could not 
bear the thought of being even distantly connected 
with you !’ It was the first time that Lorin had ever 
rounded on me like that, and I could have killed him 
but for the fact that he had just bruised his arm a bit 
getting me out of a scrape.” 

“Bruised his arm! Oh, is he much hurt?” Laline 
cried, anxiously. 

An ugly smile crossed Wallace’s face. 

“ A bruise on his arm is of more importance to you 
than my whole existence — isn’t it?” he asked, bitterly. 

Laline’s spirit was roused. 

“ Certainly it is, Mr. Armstrong,” she retorted ; “ and 
I should never forgive myself if, after I had sent your 
cousin to rescue you in a disreputable scuffle, he had 
been hurt while protecting you.” 

“Don’t distress yourself. A little arnica, together 
with your sympathy, will soon cure him !” he sneered. 
“ What I want to speak about is this. When you met 
me yesterday you told me my cousin had never men- 
tioned my name to you ; he confirmed your statement, 
and he is one of those George Washington sort of prodi- 
gies who scorn to tell a lie. I was sober enough yestei*- 
day afternoon in all conscience ; and yet, from what he 
said, you at once hated me so much that you wanted to 
break with him on my account. Is that true ?” 

The colour came and went in Laline’s face, and her 
heart beat fast. It was indeed only too true that on his 
account she must part from Lorin — but true in a far 
deeper and distant sense than Wallace knew or could 
guess. 

“ I cannot discuss my private affairs with you,” she 
said in a very low voice, and without looking him in the 
face. 


236 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ But if you have any sense of justice/’ he returned, 
quickly, “ you will tell me what reason you had for the 
scorn and hatred — for it was nothing short of that — you 
showed from the moment that you found out it was not 
my cousin but I to whose arms you had rushed. Those 
few seconds, while you clung to me before you found out 
your mistake, were among the sweetest in my life.” 

“ Mr. Armstrong,” she said, growing hot with anger, 
“ if you are only detaining me here to insult me, your 
conduct is even worse than I expected from you.” 

“ Is it an insult,” he asked, “ to tell you that a spon- 
taneous caress from a woman as good as she is beautiful 
made me feel another man ? Is it an insult to tell you that, 
during those few seconds, while you rested your head on 
my shoulder and I felt the touch of your hands about 
my neck, I would have given the rest of my life to have 
been for a few moments only the man you loved?” 

“ It is impossible !” she cried, in great agitation. “ You 
had not even seen my face !” 

“Just a fleeting glimpse in the twilight of beautiful 
appealing eyes and beautiful arms outstretched towards 
me. But it was the love in your touch, Miss Grahame, 
and the love in your voice which moved me. No woman 
has ever loved me like that. The women I have known 
have been fools, or worse. But as you nestled in my 
arms for those few seconds and I smoothed your hair, I 
understand what a woman like you might make of a 
man like me.” 

Instinctively he moved one step towards her, and as 
instinctively Laline put up her hand, as though to ward 
him off, and drew a step farther away from him. He 
saw the action and frowned impatiently. 

“ Why should you hate me as you do ?’ he asked, in 
tones of passionate anger. “ Can you not love my cousin 
without hating me ? I tell you it was the thought of 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


237 


your scornful eyes and your scornful voice that drove me 
to drink yesterday. I had been half inclined to swear 
off and reform and be reconciled to my uncle, and all 
that ; but your disdain seemed to choke me. I couldn’t 
go home and think about it, so I tried to drown the 
memory of you and your words too. Now be frank with 
me, Miss Grahame. What could have made you hate me 
even before we had ever met, unless it was Lorin’s 
account of me?” 

“ I had heard about you from others,” she answered, 
in a confused tone, averting her face from him. “ I — I 
have a horror of people who drink. I had seen things 
about you in the papers ” 

“ Oh, I don’t pretend to be a saint !” he broke in. “ My 
life is my own — it’s of no value to any one but myself; 
and what I do with it is no one’s concern but my own. 
My flawless cousin is perpetually playing guardian angel 
to me. It is a part he enjoys, and he ought to be grate- 
ful to me for providing employment for him in that 
capacity.” 

“ It is your paltry sneers about your cousin that make 
me dislike you, Mr. Armstrong !” Laline flashed out at 
last. “ 1 am not one of the women who care for dissi- 
pated heroes or who believe in the love of reformed 
rakes; and I see nothing to sneer at in the unselfish 
goodness of an honourable man towards an ungrateful 
relative. The sneers and sarcasm, to my mind, should 
be for the man who deliberately indulges in degrading 
vices and then poses as unloved and misunderstood be- 
cause well-conducted people have no wish to know him.” 

Just for one second a look of furious anger shot from 
Wallace’s eyes. Then he turned humble again. 

“ 1 beg your pardon,” he said, “ for seeming to dis- 
parage my cousin. But why should he have everything 
and I nothing ? Is it not enough to be accepted as my 


238 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


uncle’s heir — to be rich, successful, and popular, and a 
partner in one of the finest businesses in London — but 
he must also have the love of one of the best and purest 
and most beautiful of women? Why should he have 
everything and I nothing ? In this very house, every 
corner of which I knew as a boy, I have had for weeks 
and months past to slink about like a hunted thief, flying 
from the man who should by rights stand to me in the 
place of a father. I have been allowed here on suffer- 
ance by my cousin and the butler, who take it upon 
them to lock up everything but tea and soda-water 
while I am about, and who watch me as though I were 
a dangerous wild beast. Do you think such treatment 
tends to sweeten a man’s disposition or to make him 
think better of his fellow-creatures ?” 

“ You did not look, when I entered, as though you 
were here on sufferance, or as if you greatly feared 
being found here by Mr. Wallace,” Laline remarked, 
coldly. 

“ No ; but for this immunity I have had to do penance 
with bell and candle. I was only taken back into favour 
this morning at Lorin’s intervention, and have had 
to promise and vow unheard-of things in the way of 
reformation before my uncle would condescend to shake 
hands with me.” 

“And it was Lorin who brought the reconciliation 
about ?” 

“ Oh, Lorin — always Lorin to the fore in good works!” 
he sneered. “ I think in this case it was as a set-off in 
the ledger of his conscience against having gone for me 
and called me bad names last night.” 

“ Is it possible you feel no gratitude towards him ?” 

“Mo,” he answered, roughly; “I don’t understand 
gratitude ! Love and hate I know, and scorn, and even 
now and then, in weak moments, something like regret. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


239 


But that last is waste of time ; and as to gratitude — why 
should one be grateful ? No man does more for another 
than he feels inclined to. Some people enjoy giving up 
things and being unselfish and denying themselves and so 
on. I don’t. I have never yet met the man or woman 
who, in my opinion, was worth the slightest sacrifice from 
me, and I don’t suppose I ever shall. Don’t turn from 
me in such disgust, Miss Grahame. Most people think 
as I do, but fear of others make them hold their tongue 
about it and pose as being fond of doing good and all 
that sort of humbug. Now I am not like that.” 

“ No,” she returned ; “ I see you are not. You like to 
boast of your evil qualities as though you were proud of 
them ; and you think it a fine thing to utter bitter and 
uncalled-for jests at the expense of others, under the 
pretence of loving truth.” 

“ Miss Grahame,” he said, suddenly seizing her gloved 
hands and turning her face to the light, “what makes 
you hate me as you do ? It sounds in your voice, which 
vibrates with dislike ; you shrink back from my touch as 
though I were a viper ; you can’t even look me in the 
face; and your scorn breaks out in every word you 
utter. What possible harm have I ever done you that 
you should hate me as you do ?” 

His fierce pressure of her hands hurt her, and the 
very touch of his fingers had the effect of making her 
tingle from head to foot with aversion. A desire, which 
was almost hysterical in its intensity, came upon Lalino 
to answer him back the truth, and cry, — 

“ I hate you because you are my husband, because you 
won me by a cruel and heartless trick, because I under- 
stand your nature and my own revolts against it, and 
because you stand between me and the man I love with 
all my heart and soul !” 

“ Why won’t you look at me ?” he was asking. “ Is my 


240 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


appearance so loathsome that you daren’t even do that ? 
Look in my eyes, and you will read there whether, if I 
had Lorin’s chance, I could not love you a thousand 
times better than he is capable of doing. Love ! He 
doesn’t know what it means. How can a man with 
beautiful manners and beautiful clothes, a man who 
paints pretty pictures and plays tennis with pretty girls, 
a man of flawless character with his pockets full of money 
and bis future nicely garden-rolled before him, know of 
the passion that burns in the veins of a friendless scamp 
such as I ? Your good men who go to church on Sunday 
and stick to their desks so many hours on weekdays 
don’t know the meaning of the word passion. Lorin 
has everything in life — why should he want you too ? 
Good women like you are sent into the world to 
redeem bad men like me, not to carve beef and mutton 
for such estimable citizens as my cousin Lorin. A good 
woman whom I loved and who loved me might do what 
she liked with me ; and, Lina, from the moment when 
yesterday you ran into my arms, I have loved you and 
longed to hold you there again !” 

“ You must be mad !” she exclaimed, struggling to free 
her hands from his grasp. “ If you were in your right 
senses you would not dare to speak to me like this ! I 
have only once before seen you — I have no feeling 
for you but contempt and dislike — and yet you talk to 
me of love ! Let my hands go this instant, and never 
presume to so insult me again 1” 

She was looking him full in the face this time, with 
mingled terror and aversion shining in her soft, dark 
eyes. As he met their gaze, Wallace Armstrong sud- 
denly dropped his hands and fell back a step with a 
muttered expletive — 

“ What a likeness!” he ejaculated, and continued staring 
fixedly at Laline. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


241 


In terror lest he should have recognised her, the girl 
turned abruptly from him and hurried towards the door. 
Before she could reach it he had arrested her steps by 
laying his hand on her arm. 

“ I beg your pardon,” he stammered, “ but just for one 
moment you looked so strangely like some one I once 
knew — my wife, in fact — a worthless hussy, who deserted 
me on our wedding-day. I meant to treat her well, for 
I liked her, and she might have made something of me 
if she had tried ; but she was a true daughter of her 
father, and bad to the core. For just an instant, though, 
you looked so like her that it was quite startling.” 

During this speech Laline had had full time to recover 
her self-possession. 

“ Thank you,” she said, with glacial politeness. “ From 
your description it is hardly flattering to be likened to 
such a person. Your uncle and your cousin must have 
been misinformed. They told me that your wife was an 
orphan when you first met her, and that she died, deeply 
regretted, of typhoid fever about a month after your 
marriage.” 

He gazed at her curiously, still with his hand on her 
arm. 

“ So that is the story you heard — eh ?” he remarked. 
“I said my wife bolted from me on her wedding-day; 
but I never said I didn’t get her back, did I ? As to the 
‘ deeply -regretted’ — well, we are all deeply -regretted on 
our tombstones, aren’t we ? Ho — don’t shake my hand 
i off; if we are to be cousins by marriage, mayn’t I even 
l touch your sleeve ?” 

And at that identical moment, as they stood close 
together facing each other, Wallace with his hand on 
Laline’s arm and both clearly agitated, the door opened 
quickly, and Lorin and his uncle came upon them. 


L q 


21 


242 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


CHAPTER XXV. 

A look of astonishment passed into old Alexander 
Wallace’s face, and into that of Lorin an expression of 
acute vexation as they stood in the open door-way. 

“ Lina,” the latter exclaimed, “ I am so sorry I could 
not come before. Apparently I need not introduce you 
to my cousin. You never told me that you had met 
him ?” 

“ Your cousin visited Mrs. Vandeleur’s yesterday after- 
noon, but I was out of the room nearly all the time,” 
said Laline, constrainedly. “ Didn’t I mention it to you ? 
Xow please let me say ‘ How do you do ?’ to your uncle.” 

“Welcome to my niece Lina!” exclaimed old Alex- 
ander, beaming with benevolent joy. “ May I have an 
uncle’s privilege, my dear ?” 

With paternal tenderness he took both the girl’s hands 
in his and kissed her on the cheek. 

Luncheon was served in the dining-room on the 
ground-floor. To Laline it was’ a terrible ordeal to sit 
between Lorin and Wallace. The latter, as she after- 
wards learned, had insisted upon being included in the 
party, maintaining that his presence at such a family 
gathering would be the clinching proof that he had 
been taken back into favour. He was in the highest 
possible spirits, devoting himself to Laline, paying her 
compliments, and forestalling her wants at table, the 
while he, with what appeared like irresponsible gaiety, 
rallied Lorin on his backwardness in looking after his 
fiancee. 

“ ‘ A laggard in love,’ that’s what you are, Lorin !” he 
cried. “ This is the second time you have neglected to 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


243 


hand the salt to Miss Grahame. Take care 1 don’t prove 
another young Loch invar, and carry off your prize under 
your nose.” 

“ In the case of young Lochinvar, Mr. Armstrong, the 
bride was willing to go,” Laline remarked with some 
acerbity, whereat old Alexander, who in no way under- 
stood the undercurrent of bitterness which lay in both 
sallies, laughed heartily and declared that Wallace had 
met his match. 

“ I wish I had with all my heart, sir !” his nephew re- 
torted, directing a bold glance of admiration at Laline’s 
face ; and the old gentleman laughed again in childish 
enjoyment. 

It hurt Laline to see how, in spite of his serious and 
repeated delinquencies, Wallace was clearly the favourite 
of Alexander, who was delighted to kill the fatted calf 
in his behalf, Lorin’s years of filial devotion and unself- 
ishness counting for nothing against the shallow good 
humour and assumed affection of this showy ne’er-do- 
weel. Old Alexander’s eyes rested constantly, with evi- 
dent content, upon his elder nephew’s face ; and, pleased 
as he was by the prospect of Lorin’s marriage, to him it 
was clearly an even greater subject for thankfulness that 
his boy Wallace had humbled himself before him and 
been forgiven. 

“ You must make allowance for me if my high spirits 
carry me away this afternoon, Miss Grahame,” Wallace 
said. “The fact is — and as you are so soon to be a 
member of the family I can talk freely before you — I 
have been a very, very bad boy, and a dreadful disgrace 
to everybody about me. So I was punished, as bad boys 
ought to be. The worst part of my punishment was the 
knowledge that I had deeply hurt the best man in the 
world, and that I was shut out from my old home and 
my old place in his affections. So this morning I went 


244 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


to him and appealed for another chance j and he, having, 
as I believe, a corner in his heart somewhere for me, took 
me home there again. That is the reason of my gaiety 
to-day, cousin Lina, and I feel sure you will sympathise 
with me and understand.” 

As Wallace spoke he laid his hand, with what looked 
like spontaneous affection, upon that of his uncle, to the 
left of whom he was sitting. Old Alexander grasped 
his hand warmly and tears filled his eyes. But the little 
scene failed altogether to move Laline, who felt only 
indignant that the simple-natured and kindly old man 
should be so flagrantly deceived in his worthless nephew, 
whose sneers and gibes at his uncle’s expense were still 
fresh in her mind. 

Lorin for his part talked very little. He had con- 
siderable difficulty in concealing his deep annoyance at 
the attitude which Wallace had adopted towards Laline. 
He had opposed as strongly as he could the suggestion 
that Wallace should form one of the luncheon-party that 
day. Knowing his cousin’s record, he disliked the idea 
that anything approaching familiar friendship should be 
instituted between his cousin and the woman he loved. 
Lorin’s sense of character was as keen as that of his 
uncle was deficient. Wallace’s pretended affection and 
pretended reformation in no way deceived him, and, 
although, from the associations of his boyhood, he still 
retained some little love for the scapegrace elder who 
had taught him cricket and football years ago, experi- 
ence had taught him that no reliance was to be placed 
in Wallace’s honour or Wallace’s word. 

He grew hot with indignation, therefore, when he 
marked the insolent admiration in his cousin’s gaze, and 
heard the familiar “ cousin Lina” he addressed to Laline. 
One of Wallace’s favourite boasts was that he could 
fascinate any woman if he choose to try, and beautiful, 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 245 

pure-minded Laline would not be the first woman who 
has been temporarily attracted by a plausible scamp. 

It was clear to Lorin that, since his cousin’s visit to 
Mrs. Yandeleur’s house on the preceding day, Laline had 
changed towards him. All their talk during their foggy 
walk in the Park after church had been of deferring 
their marriage, and to-day her manner towards him was 
strangely cold and absent. He had surprised her with 
his cousin’s hand on her arm, an incident concerning 
which neither she nor Wallace had volunteered the 
slightest explanation, and even now she was passively 
receiving his flattery and thinly-veiled love-making with- 
out any evident signs of disapproval. Hot one look, not 
one word had he a chance of exchanging with her un- 
noticed by his cousin, although there was very much 
that he was longing to communicate to her. He had 
hoped that the occasion of seeing her home might give 
him the opportunity he longed for ; but his presence was 
required in the bank that afternoon, and old Alexander 
was loath to let Laline leave so early. 

“Even if Lorin is busy, and Wallace here finds for 
once something useful to do, my dear,” he said, “ you can 
stay and have a cup of tea with me at four o’clock, cah’t 
you?” 

“ I have nothing more useful or more pleasant to do 
than to stay also,” Wallace was beginning, when Laline 
cut him short. 

“ I will stay alone with you, Mr. Wallace,” she said. 
“You and I can have a nice quiet tete-d-tete together.” 

The idea had been strengthening in her mind ever 
since her arrival that by old Alexander’s assistance she 
might contrive to break her engagement. The presence 
of Wallace, looming large and aggressive upon her men- 
tal horizon, made all hope of association with his cousin 
impossible. Laline was suffering acutely. The watch- 
21 * 


246 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


fulness of Wallace’s bold eyes incessantly fixed upon her 
face wrought her to such a pitch of nervous excitement 
that she was hardly conscious of what she said or did. 
The man exercised a magnetic power over her, so that, 
much as she disliked and even detested him, she was 
profoundly affected by his presence. A knowledge of 
the suffering she would shortly bring upon Lorin in- 
creased her distress of mind; she felt she dared not look 
in his face, lest her glance should be intercepted, or lest 
he should read in her eyes the consciousness that she 
was deceiving him. 

Yet the very strength of her love and pity for Lorin, 
and the necessity for putting a severe curb upon her 
emotions, made her manner of parting with him seem 
strangely cold. 

“Good-bye, Lina dear I At about five o’clock I will 
return and take you home.” 

“ I may not be able to wait until then. Good-bye !” 

How could he tell that her indifferent manner was 
only assumed, and that her woman’s heart was throbbing 
with grief and vain regret? She could not even trust 
herself to return his look as he gazed down into her face, 
his own full of surprise and pain. She drew her fingers 
swiftly from the caressing clasp of his hand, lest his 
touch should unnerve her for the work before her, and 
she let him go from her presence thus, without one word 
or look to tell him that she loved him. 

Wallace Armstrong noted the parting, and formed his 
own conclusions thereon. He would have given a good 
deal to win this girl from his cousin. Her beauty, her 
disdain, and something reminiscent in her face and voice 
at once piqued and fascinated him. So far as he was 
capable of loving a woman, he loved her, and he longed 
most ardently to humble her pride and to make her will 
subservient to his. He was nearly thirty-one, and his 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


247 


constitution was prematurely aged by his irregular 
method of life. Possibly he knew that he was on the 
downward road, and seized at the idea that he could be 
saved by the sacrifice of the love of a pure and beautiful 
girl. Certain it was that he definitely resolved, if the 
thing could be done, to win Laline from her allegiance 
to his cousin, either before or after her marriage. Pity 
and remorse were qualities as foreign to Wallace’s nature, 
where his own selfish enjoyment was concerned, as rever- 
ence and gratitude ; and on this very day of reconcilia- 
tion and forgiveness, which was to herald a new era of 
reformation, when he unwillingly left his uncle and Laline 
to their tete-a-tete , he betook himself, not to the office, in 
which he had again been offered a position, but to one of 
his favourite drinking haunts, where he speedily made 
amends for his comparative abstinence at luncheon. 

In Lorin’s sitting-room a cheery fire was burning, and 
Laline drew old Mr. Wallace’s arm-chair towards the 
blaze, while she herself stood with one hand on the 
mantelpiece and one foot on the fender, looking earnestly 
down into the glowing coals. 

“ What a slip of a girl you are, to be sure, my dear !” 
remarked Alexander Wallace, as he noticed the graceful 
but unduly slender outline of her figure in its severely- 
cut blue-serge gown. “ It’s time you had some one to 
look after you and make life pleasanter for you ! And 
what is the exact day you have fixed for the wedding ?” 

She turned and faced him suddenly, very pale, with 
big tears gathering in her eyes. 

“Mr. Wallace,” she said, “I am going to hurt you 
dreadfully — but it hurts me even more. My marriage 
with your nephew Lorin can never take place 1” 

Alexander started from his seat and gazed at her 
blankly. 

“ Never take place ?” he repeated slowly. “ You aro 


248 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


surely joking, my lassie ! I thought you seemed a bit 
cold to the boy ; but it’s only some lovers’ tiff, and you 
will make it up when you meet again. I am not too old 
to forget young folks’ ways.” 

“ There has been no tiff. I love your nephew far too 
well to quarrel with him; hut we must part, all the 
same.” 

“ Can it be possible,” Alexander asked, in bewildered 
tones, “ that you have taken a fancy to my other nephew ? 
I hope not, my dear. Much as I love Wallace — and ho 
is like my own son to me — I hope not. A good woman 
might be the making of Wallace, I do believe, but her 
heart might be broken in the process. He’s a wild 
harum-scarum fellow, and ” 

“ Ho you think for one moment,” cried Laline, indig- 
nantly, “ that I would break off my engagement with Lorin 
in order to marry your other nephew ? I have seldom 
met any one I dislike so much as he in all my life !” 

“ Yet he’s a fine, handsome fellow, and I have heard 
that women go crazy about him. There’s a lot of good 
in Wallace, too,” said his uncle, anxiously ; “ and you and 
he seemed very good friends when Lorin and I came in 
suddenly and found you together before luncheon.” 

“ He had roughly seized my arm and I could not get 
it away,” returned Laline, shuddering at the remem- 
brance of the scene. “ I can’t endure even to talk about 
him ! Lorin is worth a whole regiment of such men ! 
Lorin is manly and sincere, unselfish and kind ” 

“ If he is all this, why don’t you want to marry 
him ?” 

“ But I do want to marry him — I want to marry him 
with all my heart !” she cried, distractedly. “ Oh, Mr. 
Wallace, listen to me and help me with your advice, for 
I am very, very unhappy !” 

She slipped down on her knees on the hearthrug before 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


249 


his chair, and told her tale thus, nervously clasping and 
unclasping the slender hands in her lap while she spoke. 

“ What I am going to tell you you must give me your 
word to keep secret,” she said. “ No one must know — 
not even Lorin. Promise me that.” 

“ 1 promise ; but ” 

“ I loved Lorin as soon as I met him, and I was proud 
of loving him, and encouraged him to love me in return. 
I agreed to marry him directly he asked me. I never 
tried to hide my feelings for him. You know this, don’t 
you ?” 

“ Why should you hide your feelings ? He is a man 
any girl might be proud to love.” 

“ He is indeed ! That’s what makes it so hard to give 
him up !” 

Tears were raining down Laline’s cheeks now and her 
voice was choked by sobs. 

Alexander Wallace gazed upon her in wondering pity 
for a moment. Then he gently took her hands, which 
were pressed to her eyes, and drew her to the side of his 
chair. 

“ Tell me all your trouble, my child,” he said, tenderly. 
“ Why should you give up Lorin, since you love each 
other and since there is no quarrel between you ?” 

“ Mr. Wallace,” she faltered, “ don’t think too harshly 
of me ! I have deceived you all. When I was little 
more than a child I was married ?” 

“Married?” Alexander repeated, in astonishment. 
“ Then you are a widow ?” 

“No!” 

“ Your husband is alive ?” 

She bowed her head. 

A long pause followed. Mr. Wallace let her hands go 
and rose from his chair. 

“ Heaven forgive you,” he said, solemnly, “ for playing 


250 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


with a good man’s love ! It was an ill deed, whatever 
prompted it ? My poor boy !” 

“Mr. Wallace,” cried Laline, springing up and facing 
him, “ don’t misjudge me ! When I met Lorin, I believed 
myself free to be his wife. It is only quite recently — 
within the past few days, indeed — I found out that ” 

“ That your husband was alive ?” 

“Yes.” 

“ And you have to return to him ?” 

“ No, no — not for the whole world ! I Please — 

please don’t ask me any questions, Mr. Wallace! My 
marriage was a terrible mistake ! I had heard and seen 
nothing of the man I married for several years ; I knew 
of nothing to prevent my marriage with Lorin. Then, 
by sheer accident, I learned that that other man was still 
alive. I cannot tell you how much I hate him ; and he 
never cared for me for one moment, and has forgotten 
my existence. But he lives, and I cannot marry Lorin !” 

“ But why tell me all this, my child ? Why not go to 
Lorin, and let him hear the truth from your own lips ?” 

“No, no — I can’t; it is quite impossible! I have 
made up my mind what to do. I must go away from 
here, to some place where he cannot follow me; and 
then you must break it to him. Only remember one 
thing. You must tell him I loved him with all my heart 
and soul. Tell him I never knew what love was until I 
met him. Tell him that my marriage was a miserable 
farce, that within one hour of the ceremony I was far 
away from my husband, and that I never went back to 
him again. Be sure to tell him that. Tell him it is of 
no use to think of me any more. I don’t want him to 
leave off loving me, but he must love me as though I 
were dead, for I must be dead to him. I shall leave 
England, and he must not attempt to find me or follow 
me. I trust to his honour to respect my wishes, for it 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


251 


is of no use pretending to be better or stronger than I 
am, Mr. Wallace. I love Lorin so dearly that, if I were 
to see him or write to him, I don't know what I might 
say or do. You see it is a great temptation. I am tied 
to a man I hate, who does not even know that I am 
alive; yet, because of those words we spoke together 
years ago when I was too young to understand the 
meaning of what I did, I must break my own heart and 
that of the man I love and live lonely and uncared for 
perhaps all my life. To me it seems bitterly, cruelly 
hard I Yet I would not for anything let Lorin fall from 
my ideal of him ; and, if we were together, and he asked 
me to become his wife, in spite of the law, I could not 
be sure of myself, and perhaps I might say ‘Yes.’ Now 
do you understand why you must tell him all this and 
not I?” 

“ I understand,” the old man answered, in a broken 
voice. “ My poor children 1” 


CHAPTEK XXYI. 

Alexander Wallace was, it is to be feared, incapable 
of keeping a secret. 

Had he not been a singularly lucky man with an ex- 
cellent head for figures, he would never have augmented 
the splendid business which came to him from his father, 
for he was almost incapable of deception and by nature 
as trustful as he was truthful. 

His nephews were both men of wider education and 
more subtle brains than he possessed, and both could 
read him like a book. As a result of this, Lorin antici- 
pated his wishes and studied his comfort in every detail, 


252 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


while Wallace took advantage of the old man’s weak 
points and sneered at his guilelessness. 

It followed therefore that, as soon as Lorin entered 
his uncle’s presence at about five o’clock that day, and 
found him greatly agitated and Laline already departed, 
he became convinced that some talk had passed between 
them intimately connected with his own future happi- 
ness, and set himself to work to find out of what it was 
composed. 

“ Have you and Lina settled the wedding-day between 
you, TJncle Alec ?” he inquired, taking his stand by the 
fireplace, so that the lamplight fell full on his com- 
panion’s face. 

Alexander Wallace’s features twitched as at some 
painful remembrance, and there was an embarrassed 
pause before he replied — 

“ 1 There’s many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip,’ my 
boy. I should not tease Lina about the date, if I were 
you. She has known you so short a time that it is not 
surprising she should want the wedding put off for a 
bit.” 

“ Oh, but I shall never agree to that !” Lorin returned, 
in tones the coolness of which belied his keen anxiety. 
“ The first thing to-morrow I shall buy the licence ; and 
before the end of this month we shall be man and 
wife.” 

“ Ay, if she will have you.” 

“ What do you mean ?” 

“Oh, nothing!” Alexander returned, confusedly, re- 
membering his promise to reveal nothing until Lina 
was far away. “ But girls change their minds, so people 
say.” 

His attempt at acting was a complete failure — a child 
would not have been deceived by it. Lorin, from his 
vantage-ground back to the light, stared relentlessly 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


253 


into the old man’s face, which gave his words the lie, 
and a great fear began to creep into his heart. 

“ Did Lina tell you she does not love me ?” he asked, 
after a pause. 

“ No, no, my boy — no word of such a thing !” 

“ Did she tell you she meant to break with me ? An- 
swer, for Heaven’s sake, and tell me the truth ! It is 
not like you, Uncle Alec, to hesitate and beat about the 
bush and say what you do not mean, and it is not fair 
to me. My life’s happiness is at stake and I must know 
what she said to you.” 

“ I cannot break my promise to her 1” exclaimed Alex- 
ander, rising in deep distress. “Lorin, my boy, you 
should give up all thoughts of her — for the present, at 
least. I fear, my lad, it is not to be and that you must 
forget her.” 

“ You might as well tell me to tear my heart out and 
not feel the pain ! What reason did she give you ? 
But she can’t be in earnest ; she only means to try me.” 

“ She is absolutely in earnest, and she trusts to you to 
respect her wishes. Consider what a short time you 
have known her ” 

His words fell upon heedless ears. Before he had 
finished speaking Lorin darted from the room. In a 
very few seconds he was down the stairs, out of the 
house, and in a hansom on his way to 21, St. Mary’s 
Crescent. 

Only one idea filled his brain — he must see Lina, must 
never leave her until she had sworn to be his as soon as 
the Church could marry them. To-morrow he would 
buy a special licence, and, that bought, she must instantly 
become his wife, so that no more deadly torturing fears 
of losing her could harass him. 

Twice he shouted to the driver to go faster ; and a 
block in the thoroughfare at the top of Sloane Street 

22 


254 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


threw him into a fever of nervous impatience. The 
hideous supposition that she might be induced to jilt 
him for his cousin rose more than once in his mind, to 
be angrily dismissed again. She must be merely wishing 
to try him out of girlish coquetry, for which she should 
be punished by being married, trousseau or no trousseau , 
within the next twenty-four hours. Of that he was 
fully determined. 

“I am too jealous to bean engaged man,” he told 
himself. “ Lina must be mine altogether, and I must 
take her away with me. I know she loves me. What 
could possibly come between us? It must be some girl- 
ish freak on her part. But I am glad I have to see her, 
for I am starving for a kiss ! I must see her alone, and 
will kiss away from her lips the memory of her coldness 
to-day. What a confoundedly slow cab this is ! I could 
walk the distance in half the time !” 

At St. Mary’s Crescent bad news awaited him. Susan, 
who showed him into the morning-room on the ground- 
floor, and took his name up-stairs to Miss Grahame, re- 
turned to tell him that that young lady could not receive 
him. She was suffering from a bad headache, and had 
gone to bed. 

“ Gone to bed ? It isn’t six o’clock yet I Is she really 
ill, Susan ?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

Lorin looked doubtfully at Susan ; then he drew a 
sovereign from his pocket and laid it in her hand. 
While she was feebly affecting to return it, he closed 
her hand upon it, and spoke in low quick tones in her 
ear. 

“ Susan, have you a sweetheart ?” 

“ Dear — no, sir !” 

“No one who loves you ?” 

“ Well, sir, I won’t quite say that ” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


255 


“ Susan, remember what your sweetheart would feel 
if he were disappointed about seeing you, and tell me the 
truth. Has Miss Grahame really gone to bed ?” 

“Hot quite, sir; but she is in her room, and looks 
dreadful bad. She’s been crying, sir. She was crying 
while she spoke to me.” 

“ You must take her a note.” 

“ Will you write it in here, sir ?” asked Susan, in sym- 
pathetic tones, putting pen, ink, and paper on the table 
before him, and discreetly retiring a few steps. 

And Lorin wrote thus — 

“ My own Darling Heart — I must see you 1 I can’t 
live another hour unless you speak to me ! I have some- 
thing of the utmost importance to both of us to propose. 
Lina, my only love, why were you so cold to me to-day ? 
Why won’t you see me now ? And why are you crying ? 
See me just for one brief instant, and let me kiss your 
tears awayi Lina, I shall go mad if you treat me 
coldly ! You can’t possibly understand what you are to 
me or you would never play with me like this. Lina, 
you have my very heart and soul in your keeping; I will 
not even believe it possible that you could treat me badly 
until I hear it from your lips ! See me, my darling, for 
Heaven’s sake, just for one moment ! You need not 
even speak. Come down and give me one kiss, my wife 
that is to be, and I will go away happy. Only come ! 

“ Yours, through life and death, 

“ Lorin.” 

A silly, incoherent, lover’s letter, but poor Laline’s eyes 
overflowed at each line of it. 

Susan waited discreetly outside the door while Miss 
Grahame read it, and heartily hoped the handsome, 
pleasant-spoken young gentleman with the beautiful 


256 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


blue eyes and lovely curly black hair would not be dis- 
appointed. 

Presently Laline’s voice came to her from within the 
bedroom. 

“ Go to Mr. Armstrong, Susan, and tell him I am very 
sorry but I am not well enough to see any one to- 
night.” 

A stifled sob came after the words, and Susan decided 
that Miss Grahame was “ awful cruel,” and did not de- 
serve so fascinating a sweetheart. 

“ And him a young gentleman of fortune, and she only 
a sort of governess, too !” 

This was Susan’s private comment. Aloud she said 
timidly — 

“ Mr. Armstrong seems in a dreadful way about you, 
miss. Shall I tell him you are feeling a little better 
now ?” 

“ Please tell Mr. Armstrong just what I have said and 
no more !” 

“ Pine airs she do give herself, to be sure — and her no 
better-looking than some other people!” Susan said to 
herself, as she flounced down-stairs. “ It isn’t everybody 
that admires them thin women ! She isn’t half as pretty 
as Miss Clare to my way of thinking ! Miss Clare and 
me we have got a bit of flesh onour bones ; and I’ve heard 
say that’s what the men admire, and not your scrag-ends 
of girls !” 

But aloud to Mr. Armstrong, eagerly waiting in the 
front room, Susan, with demure mien, merely repeated 
the message Miss Grahame had given her. 

Lorin knitted his brows. 

“ She is really ill, then, Susan ?” 

“ I think she is upset, sir, about something — more than 
ill, so to say.” 

“Ah! Is your mistress in?” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


257 


“ Yes, sir. She is in her study.” 

“ Alone?” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Will you take her a note, too, Susan, while I wait for 
an answer?” 

“ Certainly, sir !” 

Susan was growing quite excited over this little ro- 
mance. Ijorin, on his part, understood something of Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s nature, of her shrewdness, her inquisitiveness, 
and her love of what Americans call “ bossing the show,” 
and being appealed to as an arbiter of fate. There was 
therefore some subtlety in his note, which ran as fol- 
lows — 

“ My dear Mrs. Yandeleur — On my memorable first 
interview with you not many weeks ago you told me 
various things about myself that were true, and foretold 
others that have since come to pass. You were also good 
enough to express yourself in kind and friendly terms 
towards me, and to advise me to come to you should I 
need counsel. At this present moment I am in deep dis- 
tress and perplexity, and should be most grateful for 
your advice and help. Will you give them? Hoping 
fervently that your kindness may move you to do so, I 
remain, 

“ Yours very faithfully, 

“ Wallace Lorin Armstrong.” 

He had not long to wait for an answer. In a very 
few seconds Susan tripped down with a gracious mes- 
sage, and showed the visitor into her mistress’s study. 

How well he remembered, as he entered, his first meet- 
ing with Laline, the slim white figure dimly visible in 
fog and firelight, and the look of fear and astonishment 
with which she had turned towards him as she dropped 

r 22* 


258 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


the crystal ball at his feet in her alarm at his unexpected 
entrance. It had all happened so few days ago, and yet 
it seemed to Lorin that he must always have known 
Laline, that she must always have been part of his very 
existence, and that his hopes and aims must ever have 
centred wholly in her. The room, with its odd accesso- 
ries, gleaned from Eastern and mediaeval art by modern 
superstition, recalled her image so vividly before his 
mind that his eyes turned involuntarily to the low seat 
by the fire, as if expecting that the form of Laline her- 
self would resolve itself from the shadows and rise on 
his approach. 

But the little gray lady with the jewelled fingers and 
the bird-bright eyes was alone, peering at him out of her 
long-handled eye-glass set with garnets and turquoise. 

“ So you have sought me ?” she said, extending a small 
ivory-like hand towards him. “ I thought you would ! 
You were rather sceptical, too. But let that pass. Shall 
I tell you, or will you tell me, what you have come 
about ?” 

“ As you like,” he answered, sinking into the chair she 
indicated with a wave of her hand. 

“ You are passionately in iove with my beautiful sec- 
retary. For that I owe you a very deep grudge. She 
was just the white-souled, child-hearted creature I wanted 
for my work, and you have spoiled her. When she came 
to me her mind was as a clear page ; now it is disfigured 
by an ideal picture of you. Yes — disfigured, to my way 
of thinking, in spite of your good looks, Mr. Armstrong. 
If she had remained the passionless white-flower soul 
she was when she came to me, we might together have 
completed my two great works in a comparatively short 
space of time. But now this tiresome, transient love- 
rubbish has already rendered her self-conscious, capri- 
cious, and hysterical, and from the calm, soulful study 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


259 


of the occult, she has fallen to studying only you. What 
is the result ? Lina can’t write, she can’t think, she has 
headaches, and cries when she is looked at. That is not 
the psychic state in which to approach loftier spheres 
of thought.*"; That is the worst of our sex. Give them 
the hope of fortune, of distinction, of a career, a calm 
and elevated sphere of thought, which would raise them 
above the little aches and pains and vexations of hu- 
manity, and what do they do ? At the distant vision of 
a man, it all goes to the winds ! All my secretaries have 
been like that ; and I might have guessed that Lina, who 
is very much the most beautiful, would not escape this 
craze for the male sex which is a drag upon the spiritual 
progress of almost every woman between seventeen and 
fifty. Why could you not have fallen in love with my 
niece Clare ? That would in no way have interfered 
with my work or my plans. Clare is very handsome, I 
suppose, although it is not a type that I personally ad- 
mire. Were I an elderly man, however, I could imagine 
myself raving about her. You were supposed to be 
Clare’s admirer at first, and had you continued to be so 
I should have nothing to complain of. Between my 
niece and me there is nothing in common. She is too 
mundane, too full-blooded for me. She is like too much 
sunlight coming glaringly in one’s eyes between Venetian 
blinds — the shock all the cruder because of the pretence 
of concealment and shade. But Lina — she is far too 
good to be wasted on a man ! Love and marriage take 
all life and individuality out of ninety-nine of every 
hundred Englishwomen ; and the better the woman, the 
more like a cow or a cabbage she becomes under domes- 
ticity. There — my sermon is ended ! Now you can re- 
count your little love-troubles ; but don’t suppose for a 
moment that you have happened upon a sympathetic 
listener !” 


260 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“I would rather be understood than sympathised 
with,” he returned, gravely. “ Mrs. Yandeleur, all that 
you have been saying is extremely interesting. But, to 
take your own admissions, Lina is young, exceptionally 
beautiful, and essentially womanly. That being the case, 
she must necessarily give and inspire love. Although 
she is exceedingly intelligent, she makes no claim to 
mental or spiritual gifts above the average. Although 
you and I may agree that she is made of ‘ spirit, fire, and 
dew,’ and that the ‘ good stars stood in her horoscope,’ 
to most people she would only appear a charmingly at- 
tractive girl, whom any man might fall in love with. 
That is the way in which men, and women too, think and 
speak of girls, and I am inclined to think such a method 
of thought will prevail as long as this world of ours. 
Given these premises, isn’t it a good thing that Lina, of 
whom I am sure you are fond, should be going to marry 
a man whom you dislike so little as you dislike me ?” 

“ I don’t dislike you at all,” said the little lady, smiling 
graciously enough. “ There is much in your nature that 
I admire, and with which I am in accord. Your cousin, 
on the other hand, is quite remarkably evil, although 
extremely interesting. But, to go back to your tiresome 
little love-affair, which of course to you blocks out all 
other subjects from your mind, and will for a few weeks 
— what puzzles me is not that Lina should be trying to 
part from you, but that she should ever have consented 
to marry you. Did you really in so many words ask 
her to be your wife ? And did she say ‘ Yes ?’ ” 

“ Most certainly.” 

“ It is very extraordinary indeed ! And I must tell 
you it was only through my niece Clare that I heard 
one word of this love-business between you and Lina. 
The girl herself can hardly be persuaded to speak of 
you at all.” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE . 


261 


“ Why should you be surprised at our engagement^ 
Mrs. Yandeleur? You must have seen that I loved 
her.” 

“ To fall in love and to suffer was marked in your 
hand. With Lina things were different.” 

She was thinking of that previous marriage of Lina’s, 
which the girl had half confided after the elder lady had 
half guessed it. 

“ And now,” said Lorin, rising and coming over to Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s table, “as the mischief is done, and your 
secretary merged in the woman who loves, I have come 
to throw myself upon your compassion and implore 
your help. Something — I don’t know what — has come 
between Lina and me. Last night, when I met her on 
her return from church, she was strangely agitated, al- 
though twenty-four hours before I had left her full of 
love and happiness. She spoke of deferring our mar- 
riage, and to-day, when she came to luncheon, her man- 
ner towards me had incomprehensibly altered and she 
barely spoke to me. Some confidence passed in my ab- 
sence between her and my uncle, and induced him on 
my return to speak to me about breaking off our engage- 
ment. And when, on realising the purport of his stum- 
bling hints, I hurried off here, Lina refused to see me, 
and sent a message to say that she had a headache and 
had gone to bed. Mrs. Yandeleur, there must be some 
reason for this extraordinary change of front. I do not, 
I will not, believe that it is mere caprice on Lina’s part 
which induces her to treat me thus. Therefore, I come 
to claim your help. You understand her, you can in- 
fluence her, you can find out what is the obstacle her 
imagination — for it can be nothing else — has placed be- 
tween us. Do this for me out of the kindness of your 
heart — I beg, I beseech of you !” 

She looked up smiling into his handsome, glowing face. 


262 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ I promise you I will do my best to serve your cause,” 
she said, holding out her small pale hand; and Lorin, 
catching at the hope, raised her fingers gratefully to his 
lips. 


CHAPTER XXYII. 

When Lorin Armstrong descended the stairs after his 
interview with Mrs. Yandeleur he felt that he had 
secured a valuable ally. 

If any one could coax from Lina the reason for her 
conduct it was the little gray witch, whose manner in- 
spired and almost compelled confidence, and who, how- 
ever much or little she might understand the world of 
spirits, was marvellously quick in finding out anything 
she wanted to know about matters pertaining to this 
earth. 

It had been arranged between them that he should 
call at noon on the following day, by which time Mrs. 
Yandeleur was to have had a long interview with Lorin’s 
recalcitrant love-lady. Had the matter rested with him 
the young man would have gladly waited on the door- 
step of Number Twenty-one throughout the whole of 
that evening, or, with equal celerity, would have pre- 
sented himself there before dawn on the following day. 
But Mrs. Yandeleur clearly was not a woman to be hur- 
ried in well-doing, and she had no intention of either 
detaining Lorin this evening or of putting in an appear- 
ance before her usual time on the next morning, solely 
because her secretary had tried to quarrel with her 
sweetheart. 

Lorin had therefore to content himself with impress- 
ing upon her the vital importance to his very existence 
of a speedy reconciliation between himself and his di- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


263 


vinity, and had then perforce to depart, full of new 
hopefulness, until, at the foot of the stairs, he found 
gleaming at him across the dimly-lighted hall the strange 
green eyes of Clare Cavan. 

Meeting with the girl at this exact moment affected 
Lorin unpleasantly as an evil omen. From the artist’s 
point of view he admired her immensely, and often hoped 
he might some day have time and opportunity to sketch 
her as Vivien tempting Merlin. She was an ideal Vivien, 
but that fabled lady was also a more or less sinister per- 
sonage, and at this moment it clearly appeared as though 
mockery gleamed in Miss Cavan’s catlike eyes and echoed 
through her purring accents. 

“ Oh, Mr. Armstrong, I am so sorry you are off just as 
I have come back ! 1 have never yet been able to offer 

you my congratulations on your engagement. It was 
so very sudden, you see, and Lina has said so very little 
about it. But perhaps I am premature ?” 

“ Mot at all,” he returned, coolly. “ So far as I am 
concerned I heartily wish my marriage with Miss Gra- 
hame could take place to-morrow.” 

“How perfectly sweet! But you men are all like 
that ; you want us poor little women to scamper off to 
the altar without a thought of chiffons and bridal cos- 
tume, and frocks and shoes and gloves and those pretty 
things which will perhaps last us longer than all your 
much-vaunted affection 1 I’ve been quite longing to 
meet you for another reason, too. Your cousin and 
namesake called on us on Sunday afternoon, and I think 
he is perfectly delightful ! So humorous and original, 
and so unlike the ordinary men one meets in drawing- 
rooms. I assure you we all found him simply irresistible ! 
Didn’t Lina tell you so ?” 

“ I really can’t recall it.” 

“ Oh, Mr. Armstrong, I do really believe you are jeal- 


264 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


ous ! But I assure you Lina will never have a chance 
of talking to your cousin while I am about. I do so 
love eccentrics. And I have just been hearing the 
quaintest stories about him from my friends the Fitzroy- 
Cleavers.” 

Lorin winced. The cat-claws showed through the fur 
in that last thrust, and he felt he hated the girl and her 
malignant tongue. 

“ 1 am glad my cousin pleased you, Miss Cavan,” he 
said, quietly, “ and that his conversation was so well suited 
to your taste.” 

She flushed ever so slightly under his remark. 

“ Shall I tell you a secret ?” she asked, assuming her 
most ingenuous and innocent air. “ Women always like 
that type of man the best, whatever else they may pre- 
tend. There’s a confession ! You must go after that. 
Eut you’ll find some day that I’m right.” 

As soon as she had closed the door upon him, Clare 
summoned Susan and closely cross-questioned her as to 
the length and other details of Lorin’s visit. On these 
points the maid was voluble and precise, having supple- 
mented her knowledge at first-hand by listening at the 
library keyhole. 

“ It wasn’t much that I could catch, miss — I was that 
afraid of misses finding me out and setting her spirits 
after me, or of cook coming up and down stairs. But 
something misses is going to do for Mr. Armstrong ; and 
he’s to come round about it at twelve o’clock to-morrow. 
Most likely misses is going to try to make friends be- 
tween them again — don’t you think so, miss ?” 

11 1 can’t tell, Susan. But it’s very interesting, isn’t 
it ? Quite like a novel. And you shall have that green- 
velvet hat of mine.” 

Clare was intensely curious to know the rights of 
this quarrel between her rival and Lorin Armstrong. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


265 


11 Pumping” Laline was never any use; but by adroit 
flattery and artful questions she could sometimes extract 
information from her aunt, even though the latter re- 
sented her intrusion in the study during working hours. 
But, with the secretary in tears in her room, Clare de- 
cided she might risk it, and she accordingly sped lightly 
to the study door, and, after an admonitory tap, burst 
in with a great appearance of spontaneity. g 

“ Oh, auntie,” she exclaimed, “ do let me run in for a 
few minutes’ chat ! Why, where is Lina ?” 

“She is ill — a headache or something. Pray don’t 
flutter, Clare ! Fluttering gets on my nerves.” 

“ I wonder what is the matter with Lina ?” Clare re- 
marked, taking a seat and slowly removing her hat. 
“ Have you noticed how strangely she has altered since 
her engagement ?” 

“ All girls alter when they get engaged,” said her aunt, 
maliciously. “Joy turns their heads, I suppose.” 

“ I don’t think it’s joy in Lina’s case,” pursued Clare, 
shaking her head doubtfully. “ Ho ; it seems to me she 
has something on her mind.” 

“ What do you mean ?” 

By her aunt’s tone Clare divined she was on the right 
tack. 

“ Well, do you know, Aunt Cissy,” she said, with con- 
fidential mystery, “ I have some reason for supposing 
that Lina knows of a secret barrier between her and 
Mr. Armstrong — that that is why she is trying to break 
with him — before he finds it out, I mean.” 

“Where did you get that idea from?” asked Mrs. 
Yandeleur, sharply. 

“ Well, I would rather not say who told me in so 
many words ; but I have suspected the thing before,” 
Clare went on, feeling her way, and wondering whether 
she was going to stumble on the truth. “ Of course you 
m 23 


266 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


know how people will talk, and this is the sort of thing 
they say — that it is quite too reckless of Mr. Armstrong, 
in his position, to offer marriage to a girl about whose 
antecedents he knows absolutely nothing at all. Why, 
even you know very little more, do you, auntie ? And 
Lina is twenty, and has had to earn her living somehow 
since she was a child. And of course she is perfectly 
lovely, in that thin ethereal style that some people rave 
about. She is so oddly reticent, too, about her past — 
haven’t you noticed it? But, now that she is going 
to make such a splendid and unexpected marriage 
with such an extremely charming man as Mr. Arm- 
strong, no doubt it all comes back to her. She is very 
religious, you know, and very likely would rather 
give him up than be married under false pretences, 
poor girl !” 

To the whole of this elaborate speech, evolved bit by 
bit from Clare’s inner consciousness, Mrs. Yandeleur 
listened, with her brilliant hazel eyes peering intently 
through her glasses upon her niece’s face. But as the 
girl finished, the little gray lady rose from her chair in 
her wrath, every fold of her soft brocade bristling with 
indignation. 

“ Do you venture to insinuate,” she inquired in icily 
deliberate tones, “ that my friend and companion and 
fellow-worker hesitates to become an honourable gen- 
tleman’s wife because her past career has rendered her 
unworthy to fill that position ?” 

Clare was considerably taken aback ; but she resolved 
to stick to her guns. 

“ I certainly meant that,” she answered, feeling in her 
own heart that after all she had probably hit upon some- 
thing very like the truth. 

“ Then, if these are your opinions — and they are, after 
all, only such as I should expect from you — let me tell 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


267 


you that you are not fit to take my white-souled Lina 
by the hand ! I know every secret of her heart, and 
there is not one thought hidden there which would not 
shame you by its purity !” 

“ I would not disturb ’your belief in Lina for the 
world,” observed her niece, a little red spot of anger 
forming itself in the whiteness of her cheeks ; u but, on 
a subject like this, we may each keep our own opinion, 
may we not ? I myself am very fond of Lina.” 

“ That is not true ! You hate her, and are bitterly 
envious of her !” 

“ I ! Envious of her !” 

The white eyelids and yellow lashes were scornfully 
lowered over the angry eyes. 

“ I wonder, Aunt Cissy, that with your gifts and your 
genius you are so easily deceived ! I am not strait-laced, 
as you know ; but, really, I have never cared to make a 
companion of Lina Grahame. She has, I don’t doubt, 
some very good reason of her own for letting Mr. Arm- 
strong escape from her clutches.” 

“ Would you like me to prove to your face that you 
are lying?” Mrs. Yandeleur inquires, in a white heat of 
anger and excitement. 

“ Unfortunately that is impossible — isn’t it ? You 
could only get Lina’s word, and I don’t quite think I 
should accept that under the circumstances.” 

“ You shall hear it in a form which you cannot fail to 
believe !” the little lady cried in triumph. “ I will put 
Lina into a hypnotic sleep, and she shall answer me as 
she would answer her own soul. With her own lips she 
shall, in your presence, clear her good name from the 
foul slur which you, in your mean jealousy, have cast 
upon it. And this shall be done this very evening — here, 
before your eyes !” 

“ Dear auntie, pray don't excite yourself?” Clare urged. 


268 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


11 Such an ordeal would be unfair to the girl. I really 
meant nothing.” 

“ I have made up my mind,” said the little sibyl, as 
she sharply rang the silver hand-bell on the table before 
her. 

In Lorin’s interests she had already decided to submit 
Lina to hypnotic influence in order to extract from her 
the entire truth with regard to her present plans, and 
she was genuinely glad of the opportunity of proving 
to her niece how undeserved were her reflections on her 
rival. 

For Mrs. Yandeleur had no trace of doubt but that 
Laline, when put to the test, would triumphantly prove 
her spotless innocence in a manner which must convince 
even the evil-minded and unbelieving Clare. She was 
revelling in her favourite part of Fate’s representative. 
Lorin should be made happy, Clare confounded, and La- 
line vindicated by one and the same process. 

“ Hide yourself!” she signed to her niece imperatively. 
“ Lina must believe herself alone with me. Turn out 
the lamp in the inner room, and conceal yourself behind 
that Japanese screen, When she is unconscious, I will 
signal you to come near.” 

“ Ask Miss Grahame if she will kindly join me here at 
once, Susan,” was the mandate given to that young 
woman on her appearance in answer to the summons. 

“I beg your pardon, ma’am, but I think Miss Gra- 
hame’s poorly and is lying down.” 

“ Ho as I tell you ! Ask her to come to me now !” 

A few minutes later, almost as pale as the white dress 
she had donned to please her employer, Laline entered 
the room. Suffering had made her super-sensitive ; she 
seemed instantly to be aware of an inimical presence, 
for she glanced nervously about her before advancing 
towards Mrs. Yandeleur. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


269 


11 1 — I thought Clare was with you !” she stammered. 

“ I have just sent her away. I want to talk to you. 
My dear child, why this avoidance of me? I assure 
you I am beginning to be hurt. To think that I should 
have to wait to learn the news of your engagement from 
the lips of others ” 

“ Don’t — oh, please don’t !” 

The girl pressed both hands to her burning forehead. 
She had wept herself into a weak hysterical state, but 
she was anxious not to break down. 

“ I meant to write to you to-night,” she went on pres- 
ently, more calmly. “ I didn’t feel quite equal to talking 
to you. During the past few days I have lived through 
several lives of pain and thought, and I feel weak and 
worn out. Dear Mrs. Y andeleur, you have been so won- 
derfully kind to me that I wish I could tell you all the 
truth ! The one thing I must tell you is that I must 
leave your house to-morrow.” 

“ Leave me to-morrow ! Why, where are you going ?” 

“I must not tell you — I hardly know myself yet. 
But it must be somewhere where no one I have met 
lately will ever find me. I have to begin life all over 
again.” 

“ But, my child, what does all this mean ? First, I 
am astonished by hearing of your engagement with Mr. 
Armstrong, knowing, as I did, that you were not free to 
marry ; next, you refuse to see the poor young man, 
and worry him until he is nearly mad by your sudden 
and capricious coldness ; and, finally, you walk in here, 
with red eyes and white cheeks, and tell me you are 
going to the other end of the world to-morrow. What 
can it all mean ?” 

“ I cannot tell you. It has all been a terrible mistake. 
But, if you believe in me and care for me at all, dear — 
dear Mrs. Yandeleur, put no obstacle in the way of my 
23 * 


270 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


going, and never let Lorin or any one know where I 
have taken refuge. Don’t ask me to tell even you, but 
let me pass out of all your lives within the next few 
hours, and try to always think the best you can of me.” 

Just for one instant the thought flashed through Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s brain that perhaps, after all, Clare’s sus- 
picions might not be altogether without foundation. 
Laline’s mental attitude seemed hardly consistent with 
perfect innocence. But she loyally hated to entertain 
the doubt, and held out her little hands impulsively 
towards her protegee. 

“ Come here, my poor, dear, pale child !” she cried. 
“ Put your head in my lap — so — and let me charm away 
your headache with my fingers. No — don’t cry any 
more ! These love-affairs are infinitely wearing, I know. 
There ; let me touch your eyelids and charm away your 
tears ! Is that better ?” 

“ Much better !” 

Laline spoke drowsily. She had flown to her friend, 
deeply moved by her sudden display of tenderness and 
sympathy, and had unsuspectingly knelt at her feet, 
weeping tears of gratitude. Yielding herself thus read- 
ily to the magic of Mrs. Yandeleur’s touch, she became, 
in her unnerved and broken condition of mind, the most 
susceptible subject possible to hypnotic influence. 

Even while she still spoke her eyes became fixed and 
vacant in their gaze. Still the little lady’s fingers swept 
in slow caressing touches about her brow and eyelids. 
A deep sigh quivered through the girl’s parted lips, and 
her head fell heavily forward on Mrs. Yandeleur’s knees. 

“ Clare ! Quick ! Help me to lay her in this chair. 
Move away and let me place my hand on her brow — 
so !” 

Pale and inert as a dead thing Laline lay. Clare drew 
a little on one side and held her breath with excitement. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


271 


Then, through the perfect stillness of the room, Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s sweet voice sounded, speaking low, in slow 
distinct tones. 

“ Lina, can you hear me ?” 

A faint quiver passed over the still face ; then the voice 
came as from a long way off — 

“ Yes.” 

“ Do you love Lorin Armstrong ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Shall you marry him ?” 

« No.” 

“ Why have you broken your engagement ?” 

“ Because I am already married.” 

“ Married !” burst from Clare’s lips in amazement. 

“Silence!” exclaimed her aunt, imperatively. Then, 
turning again to Laline, she asked slowly — 

“ What is the name of your husband ?” 

A pause, and then softly, but with perfect distinctness, 
came the words — 

“ Wallace Armstrong.” 

“Not Wallace Armstrong — Lorin’s cousin? Can you 
mean him?” cried Mrs. Yandeleur, in horror. 

“ Yes.” 

“ When did you marry him ?’ 

“ More than four years ago.” 

“ Tell me your name before you married.” 

“ Laline Garth.” 

“ Good heavens I But he thinks you dead. Does he 
or any one know or guess the truth ?” 

“ No one.” 

Clare drew a long breath. The discovery meant 
everything to her, and the one idea in her mind was 
to communicate the precious secret in the right quar- 
ter. 

A faint sigh and a fluttering of the eyelids from La- 


272 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


line made Mrs. Yandeleur bend anxiously over her pros- 
trate form; and in the slight diversion thus afforded 
Clare slipped noiselessly from the room. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Every nerve in Clare’s body was tingling with re- 
vengeful joy over the possession of her rival’s secret. 

Of Laline’s selfishness in wanting to marry both the 
Armstrongs she could not think without hot indigna- 
tion. Ignoring the mistake which Laline had made on 
her first meeting with Lorin, Clare naturally supposed 
that her rival had deliberately gone to work to win Lorin 
from his allegiance, although she knew herself to be 
already married. 

That Laline detested her husband was very clear. 
Under an entirely new light Clare recalled the short and 
angry scene between them to which she had been a 
witness on the preceding Sunday. 

Doubtless, so Clare decided, Laline was at present 
drawing back and holding Lorin off only in order to 
pique him into an immediate union ; and Miss Cavan 
set her short, sharp, white teeth vindictively together 
as she planned destruction to Laline’s schemes. 

“ Of course she married the one cousin for his money, 
and probably found him a brute and ran away from 
him. Then she must have trusted to not meeting him 
or to his not recognising her when she set to work to 
get hold of the other ! What consummate impudence ! 
I really almost admire her for it. Xow if I can only 
find Wallace Armstrong the elder, and find him sober, I 
shall be the blessed means of restoring a missing wife to 
a loving husband’s arms.” 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


273 


A very unpleasant smile curved her thin scarlet lips 
as she reflected thus while completing a hasty out-door 
toilet before the looking-glass in her room. Opening her 
door, she stealthily crept out to listen for sounds from the 
floor below ; then, reassured by the perfect stillness, she 
fled noiselessly down and out of the house, sprang into 
a hansom in the High Street, and directed the driver to 
Wallace Armstrong’s lodgings off the Strand, where once 
before she had called in order to deliver “ A Well- 
Wisher’s” warning letter. 

Mr. Armstrong was out, Clare was informed by an 
elderly housekeeper, who gazed at her with evident 
suspicion, and who evidently disapproved of a beautiful 
and well-dressed young lady calling at the rooms of a 
handsome and dissipated bachelor at nine o’clock in the 
evening. 

But Clare was too much excited to be sensitive on 
this point, and at once begged for an envelope and a 
piece of paper, upon which she scribbled an emphatic 
mandate to Wallace to come at once to St. Mary’s Cres- 
cent on receipt of her message at any time before mid- 
night. 

“ Drive very slowly along the Strand,” she told her 
driver, when she left the house ; “ I am looking out for 
some one.” 

Laline’s evil star was in the ascendant that night, for 
Clare’s cab had not proceeded many yards, with its occu- 
pant craning her neck out of it, when she suddenly sig- 
nalled to the driver to stop. 

For there, before her eyes, lurching along the Strand, 
with his hands in his pockets, on his way from one 
drinking-bar to another, was the object of her search — 
Wallace Armstrong, Laline’s husband. 

Laline’s husband ! Clare’s heart leaped in triumph 
at the thought, which amply avenged her for any slights 


274 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


and disappointments Laline had unwittingly caused her 
to suffer. 

In vino veritas — and, after three or four hours of con- 
stant tippling, there was that about .this man’s face 
which it was not good to see. The “ ape-and-tiger” 
qualities within him, which for over ten years his way 
of life had fostered and developed, never very far be- 
neath the surface, were rampant now, and stared from 
his bloodshot angry eyes, and showed themselves again 
in his rolling walk, his hot clenched hands, and swollen, 
sullen mouth. Had Clare Cavan’s nature held aught of 
the womanly she would have shrunk from the notion of 
handing even an enemy over to the tender mercies of 
such a man as this. 

But Clare Cavan had no pity for the girl who had 
supplanted her in her aunt’s favour and in the love of so 
rich and handsome a suitor as Lorin Armstrong ; and, 
although she was annoyed at the stupefied condition in 
which she had found the man of her search, she was by 
no means minded to put off her interview with him. 

Stopping her cab, she sprang out and seized Wallace 
by the arm. 

At first he stared at her stupidly, then, with a laugh 
and an oath, he tried to shake her off. 

“ Mr. Armstrong, don’t you know me ?” she hissed in 
his ear. “I am Clare Cavan, niece to Mrs. Yandeleur. 
We had a talk yesterday — about your cousin and that 
Miss Lina Grahame he is engaged to. Don’t you re- 
member ?” 

“ Curse them both !” 

He was swaying heavily in his walk, and hardly 
seemed capable of understanding her words ; but Clare 
was not inclined to lose a moment. 

“Jump into this cab with me!” she urged, holding 
tight to his arm, in part to sustain his halting footsteps 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


275 


and in part to impress the importance of her mission 
upon him. “People are staring at us. We can’t talk 
here; and I have something I must tell you.” 

His spirit-laden breath made her faint and sick with 
disgust ; but spite was stronger in Clare at that moment 
than any other feeling, and she waited quietly while 
Wallace hurled his massive form into the seat by her 
side, and with tipsy hilarity flung his arm about her 
waist. 

“ I remember you now,” he hiccoughed — “ the wicked 
little red-haired girl, whom I kissed yesterday afternoon 
over the tea-table when I went to the little witch’s house 
to see what Lorin’s girl was like ! I hate that girl ! I 
dreamed of her scornful face and disdainful eyes ; and 
she ‘ cottons’ to my precious cousin, and is down on me 
just because I am poor and out of favour. It’s the way 
of the world — the way of the world ” 

“ Should you like,” broke in Miss Cavan, impatient of 
his maudlin prolixity — “ should you like an opportunity 
of punishing this girl for her insulting conduct towards 
you, and of paying out your cousin at the same time for 
having stolen your place in your uncle’s favour ?” 

“ Should I like ? Give me the chance !” 

“ What would you give,” Clare asked slowly and dis- 
tinctly, “ to have that girl in your power, to know that 
you were her master, and that she could not escape from 
you, while Lorin, whose wife she was to have become, 
g-nashed his teeth and tore his hair with jealousy and 
rage?” 

“ What would I give ? I think I would give my soul 
— if any one would take it !” 

“ I have come to you to-night,” pursued Clare, her 
eyes glittering like emeralds under sunlight, “ to tell you 
that this girl, Lina Grahame, is your lost wife, Laline 
Garth!” 


276 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


“ Laline ! By ! I half guessed it 1” 

The shock of the news sobered him. For some sec- 
onds he sat by her side, perfectly quiet, staring in front 
of him and pulling at his heavy moustache. Then, sud- 
denly turning upon her, he asked, in an altered tone — 

“ How did you find all this out ? Mind, I know it’s 
true ; I don’t require proofs. Jove ! How she brazened 
it out to-day, trying to stare me in the eyes while I held 
her hands ! She’s a confoundedly good actress ! But all 
you women are good at lying and deceiving. What pos- 
sessed her, though, to confide in you ?” 

“ She didn’t confide in me. She has no idea that I 
have discovered her secret. She doesn’t mean that any 
one shall know. Your half recognising her must have 
frightened her, though. She has been talking of break- 
ing off her engagement to Lorin and of going off some- 
where by herself.” 

“Her engagement to Lorin! My wife’s engage- 
ment!” 

He burst into a coarse laugh of enjoyment — a long 
laugh, during the course of which Clare watched him 
impatiently. 

“ Well, what do you mean to do ?” she asked at length. 
“ Do you mean to stand quietly by and see your model 
cousin take not only your inheritance but actually your 
wife from under your nose ?” 

“Ho, by , I don’t! Laline shall come with me. 

I’ll break her spirit and tame her pride for her ! She 
always gave promise of being pretty, but she’s a real 
beauty now ! So that’s the reason of her black looks 
and scornful words — eh? Husband number one had 
turned up to spoil sport just as husband number two was 
fairly hooked. Upon my soul, the impudence of it beats 
me! And this slim, Christian-martyr-like saint, who 
looks almost too pure for things of this earth, was coolly 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


277 


planning bigamy all the time, and would have carried it 
through but for the chance of your finding her out ! 
Hang the hussy ! She has cost me a pretty penny al- 
ready. Her father ruined me, when I married her to 
get him out of a hole, and she bolted on our wedding- 
day ” 

“On your wedding-day? I thought you had been 
married a month !” 

“ How should I know ? It all happened years ago. 
Anyhow, there shan’t be any doubt that she’s my wife 
now.” 

“ I wouldn’t claim her to-night if I were you,” purred 
Clare. “ I wouldn’t come to the house and make a scene 
so late. I would wait until the morning. Lorin is 
coming in the morning at about twelve, so you will know 
when to time your visit. But you must take her by sur- 
prise and appeal to her sense of duty, otherwise I know 
her quite well enough to be sure she will give you the 
slip again. For you know she doesn’t like you.” 

“ I know she hates me,” he returned coolly, stopping 
the cab as he spoke. “ Here we are in the High Street, 
and I’ll stroll back home and think things over. My 
head aches a bit. I know Laline hates me, but, by 
Jove, she doesn’t hate me as you hate her! I could al- 
most find it in me to be sorry for the poor wretch now 
that you’ve got your knife so deeply into her,” he con- 
cluded, as Clare bent out over the hansom and gave him 
her hand in parting. “ You are delighted with this night’s 
work,” he said roughly, “ because you think you have 
handed over a girl you hate to a drunken brute who will 
ill-treat her.” 

“Iam glad,” she said, with a narrow smile that showed 
her white teeth, “ to have found for Laline a husband 
of whom any girl might be proud. Good-night, Mr. 
Armstrong.” 


24 


278 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


He could have struck her sneering red lips and forced 
the lie back into her throat. He hardly knew which of 
the two he hated the most at that moment — himself or 
her. He stood staring after the hansom for some sec- 
onds after it had driven away, and threw an oath or two 
after it before resuming his stumbling walk Strandwards. 

“ There goes my match,” he said to himself. 

He was perfectly clear in his thoughts by this time, 
though still unsteady on his feet. All through his moral 
turpitude, his treachery, ingratitude, and bitter sneers at 
his betters he never for one moment deceived himself, as 
so many better and worse men have done, by believing 
himself a fine and noble character labouring under un- 
deserved persecution. 

Right down in his heart he knew that Laline was in- 
finitely too good for him, and that, if her love was given 
to Lorin, it was the man and not his money that she 
prized. Her treatment of himself he resented bitterly, 
but he knew full well that she, of all people, had good 
reason for despising him. Years ago he had learned that 
the true reason of his bride’s flight lay in the fact that 
she had overheard the interview between her father and 
himself immediately after the ceremony in the registry- 
office, and had thus been rudely thrust from her fool’s 
paradise of childish gratitude and affection. 

At the time her flight had angered him, as it had ren- 
dered the task of propitiating his uncle and extracting 
money from him more difficult; but for the girl herself 
he had had few regrets that an extra glass of cognac could 
not effectually drown. She had been only a pretty un- 
gainly child then ; but now it was very different. 

Staggering along the snow-covered streets, he laughed 
aloud as he thought of the blow he was about to direct 
against both his cousin and Laline. 

“ Lorin’s fond of unselfishness,” he reflected, sardon- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


279 


ically. u He’s always had a mania for giving up things 
to me — I wonder how he will like giving me up my wife ? 
The joke of it is that, whatever I may do, she must cer- 
tainly be in the wrong in the eyes of everybody, for the 
simple reason that I am her husband — husband to one 
of the prettiest women in London, and I didn’t know 
my own luck till half an hour ago. Lorin will be hard 
hit ; but I’ll make him a present of the red-haired one, 
and she’ll keep his hands full looking after her. My 
doddering old uncle will be delighted. He’ll bless us and 
weep over us and set us up in the Homestead ; and, by 
Jove, I’ll invite Lorin to dinner and bully Laline before 
him ! I knew her eyes in a moment — I remember how 
that innocent stare of hers used to make me uncom- 
fortable years ago. For every scornful word, for every 
scornful look, I’ll pay her back a hundredfold. While 
she was Lorin’s sweetheart there were leagues before us, 
and nothing I could say or do could touch her; but, now 
that she is my wife, I think I can punish her, and her 
hatred will give a wonderful zest and excitement to our 
future life together.” 

It was very necessary, however, that she should not 
be frightened away prematurely. Wallace forgot even 
to drink as he walked on, his brain becoming clearer at 
every step. He must have an interview with Laline on 
the following morning, and he would not come too early 
— a very early visit will start her fears, and she might 
refuse to see him — but about mid-day. Then, with a 
flush of excitement, he recollected that his cousin was to 
call at St. Mary’s Crescent at twelve. 

“ She is certain to see him,” he reflected, with a grin ; 
“ and when they are comfortably tete-d-tete, and he is 
well into the swing of his wooing, urging her to marry 
him at once, and she coyly deprecating and kissing— no 
doubt they will be kissing — I will tip the servant to 


280 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


show me right into the room where they are. Tableau ! 
It will be the finest moment of my life !” 

Having settled his plans for the morrow with elaborate 
cunning, Wallace reeled off to finish the evening among 
his favourite tavern acquaintances, to drink a farewell to 
his bachelor-existence, as he put it in his own mind, al- 
though he knew quite well he should encounter from 
Laline a desperate resistance against his wish to take 
her back again. 

“ But my will is stronger than hers,” he reflected. “ I 
remember frightening her once by telling her some stuff 
I invented about the lines of her hand. My will should 
dominate hers, and our fates should be bound up the one 
in the other, or some such nonsense. But it had a bit 
of truth in it all the same.” 

Hot one word concerning Laline did he breathe to his 
cousin when they met at the bank on the following 
morning. Lorin, as he observed, looked pale and worried 
and anxious. At half-past eleven the younger Armstrong 
left the building, and Wallace quickly followed him. 
Lorin hailed a hansom, his cousin followed in another, 
which he stopped opposite the narrow turning into St. 
Mary’s Crescent. 

Wallace, from across the road, saw his cousin admitted 
into Mrs. Yandeleur’s house, whither he was bent on 
following him. Meantime he walked up and down on 
the opposite side of the way, smoking and watching the 
narrow opening to the Crescent, the while he revelled in 
the joys of vengeful anticipation. 

“ Just a quarter of an hour, and I will darken your 
horizons !” he said, and chuckled to himself. 

But very much may happen where emotions are con- 
cerned in fifteen minutes by the clock, and, long before 
then, Lorin Armstrong had found himself alone in the 
presence of Laline. 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


281 


Mrs. Yandeleur had said so far not one word of last 
night’s discovery to Laline. She had sent for her at an 
unusually early hour in the morning, and had kept her 
fully employed, on one pretext or another, until Lorin’s 
arrival. Then, when Susan announced his name, Laline 
sprang from her seat and would have left the room, but 
Mrs. Y andeleur detained her. 

“ You must see him !” she exclaimed imperatively, lay- 
ing her hand on the girl’s arm. “ And you must tell him 
the truth — the whole truth. It is the only course fair 
alike to him and to you.” 

Then, before the girl could speak, the little sibyl had 
glided from the room, giving place to Lorin, and the 
door had closed behind him. 

“ Lina, my darling — at last !” he had cried, stretching 
his arms towards her. But she, with a white, terrified 
face, had held up her hands to ward off his caress. 

“ Don’t !” she called out in a strangled voice. “ Lorin, 
we must not love each other ! And I have deceived you, 
for I am a married woman !” 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

11 You can’t [know what you are saying,” Lorin said, 
gently, after a pause. “You forget what has passed be- 
tween us — you forget that you have again and again 
sworn that I am the first man you have ever loved, that 
my kisses are the first ever laid on your lips ; and now 
you tell me, without any warning, that you are another 
man’s wife ” 

“ Xo, Lorin — I never said so ! It would not be true. 
Just four years and a half ago I went through a cere- 
24 * 


282 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


mony at a registry-office. Remember I was only just 
sixteen and very unhappy at home, and I had no idea 
of the real value of my action. I had only known this 
man for three weeks, and had seen hardly anything of 
him. He was my father’s friend, and — my father is 
dead, Lorin ; but he was not a very good man. The 
two arranged the whole thing. It was a bargain, for a 
certain sum of money depended upon an immediate 
marriage ; and this sum they agreed to divide between 
them. Of all this I knew nothing; but we were very 
poor and in debt, and I was very lonely after my dear 
mother’s death, and had to do rough servant’s work. And 
when this man came and bought me sweets and pretty 
things to wear, and took me and all my childish friends 
out for treats and excursions, he seemed a sort of fairy 
prince, and I was quite proud of the idea of getting 
married and coming away to England, where I had been 
so happy with my mother as a child. But, within an 
hour of the marriage, I heard them quarrelling — my 
father and this man ; and he — my husband — spoke of 
me already as a drag and a bore to him. I was to be 
made to lie and cheat if I did not help him in his schemes 
to get money, and to be subjected to ill-treatment if I 
did not obey him. And, as I listened to all this, I sud- 
denly changed, and from a child grew into a woman. 
Escape was the one and only thought in my mind. By 
myself I came away to England, to the house of an old 
school-fellow of my mother’s, who kept a school at Nor- 
wood. I taught there until she left for Australia to get 
married ; and then I answered Mrs. Yandeleur’s adver- 
tisement and became her companion. There — now you 
know all my life, and I am not deceiving you any 
more!” 

Her voice broke as she finished speaking, and she 
sank on a chair by the window, gazing out, with tear- 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


283 


laden eyes that saw not, upon the dreary snow-covered 
square. Every line of her figure looked drooping and 
forlorn, and Lorin’s heart ached with pity as he beheld 
her. 

“ Dear,” he whispered, gently, “ was it quite fair to 
wait until now to tell me all this?” 

“ You don’t understand,” she returned, looking at him 
in a helpless, frightened manner. “ When I first knew 
you, I thought I would not speak one word of this until 
after — after we were married.” 

“ After we were married ? Laline, you can’t know 
what you are saying ! If your husband is alive, our 
marriage would not be legal.” 

“ I can never make you understand,” she said, leaning 
her elbows on a little table before the window and bury- 
ing her face in her hands. “ I was dense enough, mad 
enough, to believe you were my husband ! That is why 
I loved you so readily — that is why I let my heart go 
out to you — that is why I encouraged you to make love 
to me ! Oh, I have been a fool 1 But you would try to 
forgive me, I know, if I could tell you what I am suffer- 
ing now.” 

“ You — thought — I — was your husband ?” he repeated, 
slowly, feeling utterly bewildered. “ Laline, what can 
you mean ?” 

“It was the same name!” she sobbed, weakly, break- 
ing down altogether. “ And, when you were shown into 
this room that evening, I had no idea that there could 
be another Wallace Armstrong ” 

“ Good heavens !” he cried. “ You cannot mean 

It would be too horrible !” 

“ It is true all the same,” she said, raising a white 
tear-washed face to his. “I am Laline, your cousin 
Wallace’s wife.” 

“ Am I dreaming?” he asked, staring down at her with 


284 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


dilated eyes. “ I saw his wife’s grave — Wallace and her 
uncle showed it me ” 

“ It was all an invention,” she said, wearily, “ to ac- 
count for my disappearance. Captain Garth was not 
my uncle, but my father. I was married to your cousin 
not a month, but an hour, when I disappeared. They 
altered the date of the certificate. Oh, you can prove 
that what I say is true by making inquiries at Boulogne ! 
And now I have confessed ; no more lies stand between 
us and we can just say 1 Good-bye !’ ” 

He stood silent for a few moments, looking at her. 

“ Why should we say ‘ Good-bye’ ? ” he asked, in a low, 
unsteady voice. “ Does Wallace know of this ?” 

She shook her head. 

“ Ho. And until he came last Sunday, and I, think- 
ing it was you, rushed into his arms, I believed — on my 
honour I believed, Lorin — that you were my husband. 
Oh, I cannot tell you how happy the thought made me ! 
I used to whisper to myself, ‘ I am Laline Armstrong 
and his wife already.’ But I dared not tell you, partly 
because we were so happy together that I feared to 
spoil things, and partly because I had heard you speak 
so harshly of that poor Laline. So I waited, and you 
never hinted at the existence of a cousin and a name- 
sake ; nor did your uncle either ” 

“ We were ashamed of him,” Lorin said, curtly. “ He 
had not long been out of prison, and I feared to dis- 
please you. But go on.” 

“ There is nothing more to tell,” she said, in the same 
tired way. “ When I found the horrible mistake I had 
made, I felt as if I should go mad. For the first glance 
at your cousin’s face and the first sound of his voice 
told me that it was he I had known at Boulogne and 
whom I had married !” 

“ And you could believe,” he exclaimed, in reproachful 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


285 


astonishment, “ that I could have married you as a child 
for money, and could have threatened to ill-treat you if 
you did not lie and cheat for me ?” 

“ Lorin,” she said, suddenly, “ when once I knew you 
it didn’t matter what I remembered against you ; for I 
loved you instantly, and I forgot — deliberately forgot — 
all that I thought I knew against you ! At every word 
you uttered during our first meeting my thoughts grew 
gentler about you. When you left the house I watched 
you, as you know. I dreamed about you all that night ; 
and from that moment the idea of you never left my 
mind. You see,” she added, breaking down again, “I 
thought I was growing to love my own husband.” 

“ And I remembered you,” he said, wonderingly. “ I 
had seen at Boulogne a portrait of you, with loose hair 
about your shoulders, as a child. But are you really 
sure that Wallace does not recognise you ?” 

“I half feared he would yesterday. Oh, Lorin, I 
can’t bear even to talk of him ! The very sight of him 
turns me sick and cold with dislike! Lorin” — seeing 
that he stood aloof from her, looking stern and pale — 
“ you are not going to tell me to go back to him ?” 

In an instant he was kneeling by the side of her chair 
with his arms wrapped about her. 

“ Go back to him !” he repeated in horror. “ Heaven 
forbid ! Lina, you don’t know the man — you can’t un- 
derstand his nature. The very thought of his claiming 
you is sacrilege ! That marriage of yours is all an ugly 
dream which you must forget. It is not as if he wanted 
you, or as if he even knew of your existence. I want 
you, darling ! My whole nature cries out for you ! I 
cannot live another day without you. Listen to me, my 
dear one! I don’t believe your story — you have no 
proofs of it. You have, on the contrary, my cousin’s 
word, Captain Garth’s letters, and the Boulogne certifi- 


286 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


cate against you — and the testimony of my own eyes 
too, for I saw Laline’s grave. You are not she. You 
are 1 Lina Grahame ;’ and by this time to-morrow you 
shall be * Lina Armstrong.’ All that you told me was 
pure fancy. You are weak and hysterical and over- 
wrought, and living in the unwholesome, over-strained 
mental atmosphere of this ghost-ridden and witchcraft- 
haunted house has turned your brain a little. There 
is only one real and true thing in life, only one thing 
worth reckoning with — our love for each other. The 
rest are shadows and fancies. Clasp your dear hands 
round my neck, my queen, my wife, and forget every- 
thing but that I love you and you love me !” 

He was holding her passionately to him, raining quick 
hot kisses upon her lips and eyes. The fear of losing 
her worked in him like madness, and he felt that he 
must clasp her close and fast against the world. 

And she ? For a few brief seconds she yielded to the 
dear delight of his embrace, and clung to him, still 
sobbing like a penitent child. But, even while her lips 
met his, it seemed as though the spectre of Duty rose 
impalpably between them, and she turned her face 
abruptly away from his kisses and drooped her cheek 
upon his shoulder. 

“We must part, all the same,” she whispered. “ Think, 
Lorin. I am your cousin’s wife — I have sworn to keep 
faith with him. How could I meet him and your uncle 
and all the world and know that I was a cheat and a 
fraud ?” 

“ I tell you those are mere fancies !” he exclaimed, 
almost angrily. “ But you need never meet these 
people. I have quite sufficient income for us to live 
abroad. We should not mind where we went, so long as 
we were together — should we, dear?” 

“ No,” she cried, rousing herself by a supreme effort 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


287 


and walking away from him, with her hands pressed to 
her eyes — “ no, Lorin ; I must not listen, and you must 
not urge me! You know in your heart that what I 
said is true, and you know that we must say ‘Good- 
bye.’ To-night I shall leave London ” 

“ Where will you go ?” 

“I don’t know yet. I have to begin a new life 
alone.” 

“ That you shall never do. Your life belongs to me, 
as mine to you Even if all that fancied tale were true, 
of what value is the promise wrung by fraud from an 
ignorant child beside the vow made with all her heart 
by a loving woman ? You have given me your word, 
and you cannot take it back. I will not release you ; and 
wherever you go, Lina, I will follow you !” 

He had sprung after her and caught her in his arms, 
holding her so closely that his grasp hurt her. Laline 
trembled and cried ; but, with all her heart and soul 
yearning for his caress, she felt powerless to resist him. 
So they stood a moment, she with her pale cheek pil- 
lowed on his breast, while, bending his head, he spoke 
rapidly and passionately in her ear. 

“Does nature count for nothing?” he whispered. 
“ Does it mean nothing that your whole soul asks for 
me as mine does for you ? Does it mean nothing that 
our ears are dull and dead to other voices, and our 
nerves unresponsive to other touches, but that when we 
speak to each other, when my lips meet yours — like this — 
a very heaven opens to us both ? We never meant to love 
each other, darling, but, as soon as we met, love came ! I 
knew that you must be mine. And, even if your story 
were true and not an idle dream, what should stand be- 
tween us ? Our love, our life’s happiness, on the one 
side ; on the other, a childish promise to a man who does 
not want you, who does not love you, who is not even 


288 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


aware of your existence. There is no hesitation possi- 
ble, Lina. Your heart, throbbing with love for me, has 
answered for you.” 

She reddened and paled by turns as she listened to his 
words, and a very intoxication of bliss seemed to rise to 
her brain as he put the temptation before her. Yet that 
it was a temptation she knew; and, with only the 
thought of religion and of her dead mother’s teaching 
to support her, she meant to fight against it. She could 
not love Lorin the less for wishing to persuade himself 
that a lie was truth ; but the consciousness of her power 
to make him faithless to his ideals, and his power to 
make her perjured and foresworn, filled her with some- 
thing like terror. Inwardly she called on a Higher 
Power for aid in her weakness; and, as they stood 
together thus, moved by a very whirlwind of passion, 
doubt, hope, and despair, neither Laline nor Lorin heard 
the door softly open to admit a third actor into the 
scene. 

The new-comer was Wallace Armstrong. 

Ho contrition, but a malicious joy filled his mind as 
he beheld the two standing together in lover-like atti- 
tude — Lorin with his arm round Laline’s waist, and she 
with her head on his shoulder. The sight of their pale, 
agitated faces amused him hugely. He had already 
taken the edge off any finer sensations he might possess 
by more than one brandy-and-soda, and for the space of 
several seconds he stood watching, with a kind of ogre- 
like geniality, the endearments of the pair whom he was 
about to separate forever. 

From the inner room where he stood their figures were 
clearly revealed against the window ; but they, for their 
part, had no suspicion of his presence until Laline broke 
again away from Lorin. 

“ Ah, what is the use of talking ?” she cried. “ I am 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 289 

another man’s wife ; no words can alter that, even if he 
has forgotten me !” 

“ But he has not forgotten you, Laline !” 

Then they both turned and faced him, knowing that 
the worst had happened and Wallace had come to claim 
his own; and, as Lorin gazed from his cousin’s face 
to that of the woman he loved, a dumb rage seized 
him. 

He understood Wallace better than any man living, 
and, although he invariably took his part and bore with 
him as no one else had ever done, in his heart he could 
not refrain from loathing the man’s vices even while he 
tried to make allowances for him to others. Grief had 
rendered Laline’s appearance even more fragile and 
spiritual than it was normally ; the despair in her soft 
eyes was like the voiceless agony of a dying animal. 
Lorin felt that his self-control would give way if he 
looked at her, or if his eyes sought that companion- 
picture of the man, brutalised and degraded by drink 
and dissipation, whom the law had made her master. 
Turning abruptly away, he walked to the window and 
stood there a few seconds with his back to the other 
occupants of the room. 

“I am afraid,” Wallace observed sardonically, after a 
short pause, “ that neither of you are particularly glad 
to see me. I am really sorry to disturb your charming 
little matrimonial plans ; but, as I happen to be the lady’s 
husband ” 

“ Understand,” exclaimed Lorin, turning round upon 
him fiercely — “I will have no cowardly sneers at the 
expense of this lady! If she has indeed the misfor- 
tune to be your wife, I pity her with all my heart and 
soul !” 

“ Pity is akin to love, they say.” 

u And 1 love her and honour her and reverence her, 
n t 25 


290 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


and would give my life to serve her ! Lina, you know 
that, do you not ?” 

“Yes,” she said, softly — “I know it, Lorin. But we 
must say ‘ Good-bye,’ for I am going away!” 

“Not without me !” put in Wallace, advancing farther 
into the room. “ Why, Laline, now that I have found 
you, do you think I shall let you give me the slip again ? 
Look at my cousin there and look at me. Which of us 
looks as though he wanted a woman’s helping, saving 
hand — he or I? He has his money-making, his friends, 
his amusements, his afternoon-parties and balls, his 
painting and dabbling in art. But what have I ? I am 
shunned and despised because I went off the rails long 
ago and contracted bad habits which no one has ever 
cared for me sufficiently to break me of. If you had 
stuck by me all these years and had had a little patience 
with me, I should not have been the worthless wreck I 
have become.” 

She looked at him doubtfully, a woman’s gentle pity 
struggling with her instinctive aversion against him. 

“ I could not have helped you !” she murmured. “ And, 
when I had heard the truth, I could not stay.” 

“ The truth !” he repeated, in what sounded like accents 
of genuine passion. “ What do you call the truth ? You 
heard an angry altercation between two men, neither of 
them wholly sober and each trying to provoke the other. 
I have never been one to wear my heart upon my sleeve, 
and, had I told your father I wanted to marry you be- 
cause I loved you, and because I believed that you could 
make another man of me, he would have been the first 
to disbelieve me. Bemember, though he was your father 
it was he who first ruined me, he who first introduced 
me to bad company, and taught me cynicism and taught 
me fraud. Oh, I was an apt enough pupil, I dare say ! 
It is always easier to learn evil than good. But, Laline, 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


291 


with all my heart, bad as I may have been, I pitied you 
for the hardness of your life at Boulogne, and I meant 
to make you happy. In your pure eyes I read my last 
hope of salvation ; and, though I won you by a trick, I 
never meant you to regret your bargain. I meant to 
reform — I should have reformed, but your desertion 
maddened me ; and, since you left me, I have gone from 
bad to worse. Listen, Laline — I am your husband, but 
I renounce a husband’s right to your obedience ! I want 
your helping hand to save my life, such as it is, as a 
drowning man wants a rope to save him. Will you 
refuse to hold it out to me ?” 

His voice seemed to ring with sincerity and fervour. 
Laline began nervously clasping and unclasping her 
hands. Her eyes sought those of Lorin ; but he, very 
pale, with features sternly set, stood a little apart from 
the other two, as though he knew that his part was 
played, and that he could now be only a spectator in their 
life-drama of life. Already he guessed how it would 
end, for he knew that his cousin would move Laline to 
pity and remorse, both of which would be causeless and 
undeserved. 

For Lorin understood that his cousin was but acting 
the penitent to gain his own ends, as he had often acted 
it before and afterwards mocked at his own perform- 
ance. In this case the prize for which he played was no 
longer the loosening of a credulous old man’s purse- 
strings, but the life and soul of a woman, the woman 
Lorin loved. 

Yet his tongue was tied. He would not even raise his 
eyes to her face lest he should influence her decision. 
And, as he waited in the silence that followed Wal- 
lace’s appeal, Lorin felt himself growing old with pain. 

Had he only known, it was his presence which swayed 
Laline far more than that of her husband. Her heart 


292 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


was torn between regrets for lost opportunities and 
neglected duties, pity for the man before her, and an in- 
stinctive, intense dislike against him ; but, stronger than 
all these, there surged up in her heart a flood of pas- 
sionate love for Lorin, a love so strong and unreasoning 
that she herself was terrified by its force. That she 
should feel thus now in the very presence of the man 
who had a legal right to claim her and whom she had 
sworn to cherish seemed to Laline a sting both horrible 
and sinful. Once she turned to Lorin appealingly ; but 
his eyes were averted and he steadily avoided her gaze. 
The full daylight showed her her husband’s face, worn 
and old before its time, his stooping form and pre- 
maturely silvered hair, and the look of eager humble 
longing he knew well how to assume. 

Only by one act could she save herself and Lorin too, 
and it seemed to Laline that her mother’s voice sounded 
in her ears, telling her of the duty which lay straight 
before her. 

With a dry sob in her throat she spoke to Wallace. 

“ I am your wife,” she said, u and I will come to you. 
Now please go — and leave me quite alone!” 


CHAPTEK XXX. 

Exactly a fortnight later Laline stood for the last 
time within the little room in which she had slept during 
her stay in Mrs. Yandeleur’s house. Within an hour 
she would have turned her back on St. Mary’s Crescent 
forever. Now, as she gazed for the last time round the 
simply-furnished room, it seemed as though she had 
lived, not a few weeks only, but a whole life-time within 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


293 


the four walls of the old house in Kensington. Love, 
joy, and hope, terror, hatred, and dumb despair, were 
mere names to her until she became an inmate of Mrs. 
Yandeleur’s household, and the first three of these she 
was leaving behind her as it seemed forever. 

She moved mechanically about, putting the finishing 
touches to her packing. Clare’s help she had declined, 
for Clare’s malevolent satisfaction at the turn things 
had taken was more than Laline could bear. Of Lorin 
she had seen nothing since that interview which Wallace 
had interrupted ; but she knew that he had left London. 
Old Mr. Wallace had told her that when he had come to 
visit her, ready and willing to forgive all Wallace’s past 
lies and deception, and to welcome Wallace’s wife with 
open arms. He had distracted her with questions, and 
striven hard to induce her to alter her determination to 
leave England with her husband immediately, but to no 
purpose. 

“ I cannot stay in England,” she had said ; “ but, if 
you can find your nephew an opening abroad, I will go 
with him, and will do my best to make him happy 
and to help him to lead a new life amid fresh sur- 
roundings.” 

As to Wallace, he was tired of London, so he declared, 
and perfectly willing to leave it. Once away from his 
uncle’s and his cousin’s eyes, he could dispense with all 
make-believe of working, and settle down comfortably 
to spend the liberal allowance which old Alexander would 
settle upon the wife of his favourite nephew. In a few 
years’ time, so the old man stipulated, the young couple 
must return — if not for good, at least for a long visit. 

“ I must have my children about me when I die 1” he 
had pleaded. 

And to this Laline had agreed. She would have 
agreed to anything only to put the sea between her and 
25 * 


294 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


the man she loved, but of whom she would not even let 
herself think now. 

She had sent him back his ring without a word ; and 
now, within a few hours of leaving London for Liver- 
pool on her way to Canada, a letter from Lorin had 
arrived with the postmark “ Rome.” 

She would not open it at first, but held it in her hand 
as she walked about the room. She had reached a 
passive stage of grief, a point at which all feeling 
seemed to have left her, and she could look forward 
without either interest, curiosity, or even dread to her 
future existence. 

By a succession of cablegrams Alexander Wallace had 
secured for his ne’er-do-weel nephew an opening in To- 
ronto in the office of an old friend and client. Mr. and 
Mrs. Armstrong were to travel from London that even- 
ing, and sail from Liverpool for New York early on the 
following day. 

And now, just as Laline had reached the stage of dull, 
feelingless acquiescence which usually follows a storm 
of emotion, the sight of Lorin’s handwriting on the 
envelope made her heart quiver and ache, awakening to 
pain again. 

Yet his words, when she could summon up courage to 
read them, were few and restrained. 

“ I received the ring,” he wrote, “ and I am sorry you 
did not care to keep it. My uncle writes that you are 
going to Canada. I hope with all my heart that you 
will be happy there — happy and prosperous. You will 
no doubt be writing sometimes to my uncle, so that I 
shall be able to bear about you. I shall be in Italy some 
weeks, or I may cross to Spain. I do not very much 
care where I go, but I may have to cut my wanderings 
short for Uncle Alec’s sake. He is used to me and may 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


295 


be lonely. I shall not be writing again ; but you will 
remember — will you not ? — that at any time, while we 
both live, if there is anything in the world you wish me 
to do it shall be done. 

“Wallace Lorin Armstrong.” 

She read the letter with hot dry eyes. Then she sat 
down and learned it by heart — every word. That done, 
she tore it into little pieces and burned them one by one 
in the candle she lit for the purpose. Not one tear did 
she shed during the work, and her eyes were still tear- 
less when she descended to the study to take leave of 
Mrs. Vandeleur. 

To all appearance that lady was far more agitated 
than she. 

“ You are really going to him !” she exclaimed, rising 
hurriedly and coming over to where Laline stood, white 
as death, in her travelling-costume. “To the last I 
thought you would escape. Lina, you don’t know what 
it is to live with a wholly uncongenial nature. You and 
your husband were born under opposing stars; he is 
wholly animal, you are as wholly spiritual. My poor 
dear child, my heart bleeds for you, and I feel as though 
I had brought all this upon you !” 

The little lady had indeed bitterly reproached herself 
for having permitted her treacherous niece to be present 
on the occasion when Laline, under the influence of 
hypnotism, had confessed her marriage. 

“ You have always been very kind to me,” Laline said, 
in dull steady tones. “ I ought to have confided in you 
fully from the first ; but it is useless to speak of that 
now.” 

“ You seem so strangely resigned,” the little lady ex- 
claimed, peering at her curiously — “ almost as though 
you did not realise what you are doing ! It is a terrible 


296 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


thing to give your whole life into the keeping of a man 
you can neither love nor respect ; but perhaps your feel- 
ings towards him have changed.” 

A shiver ran through Laline’s frame. For a moment 
her dry lips refused to speak. Then at last she answered 
in unnaturally low level tones — 

“ Love is not everything ! I want to do my duty !” 

“ It is so difficult to say what is one’s duty,” the elder 
woman said. “ We owe duty to ourselves first of all. 
We may starve our own souls while fulfilling what we 
imagine to be our duty towards others. Is your mind 
quite made up ?” 

“ Quite !” 

“ Take this, then, as a parting gift.” 

With a little key which hung at her watch-chain Mrs. 
Vandeleur unlocked a glass-covered table in which she 
kept some of the more valuable of her amulets and 
charms. Drawing out a slender gold chain of Eastern 
workmanship, from which a five-pointed star in beaten 
gold open-work depended, she flung it round the girl’s 
neck. On the star some words were inscribed in Oriental 
letters. 

“ It is a charm,” she whispered — “ a charm which will 
preserve its wearer against the wickedness of evil minds. 
W ear it for my sake. Good-bye, my poor child ! Re- 
member, if you find the life impossible, you have always 
a home with me.” 

“Good-bye,” Laline said, with a pale smile — “and 
thank you ! But I shall not come back.” 

Her mind was resolutely fixed upon the liqe in life 
which she must follow, nor would she allow any room in 
it for regrets over the past or dread of the future. She 
had seen a good deal of Wallace during the past few 
days when he had called at St. Mary’s Crescent. By 
Laline’s request Mrs. Vandeleur had generally been 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


297 


present on these interviews, and Wallace had always 
been on his best behaviour, assiduously acting the part 
of a man of good and kindly impulse, whom weakness 
and neglect had caused to deviate from the straight 
path. 

Yet, school himself though he might, here and there 
a look, a chance phrase, betrayed his real nature — selfish, 
cynical, and callous — and struck a chill fear into Laline’s 
heart. That good existed in him she could not doubt, 
nor did he lack appreciation of goodness in others. And 
in yet another fact there lay hope for his future — he 
was unmistakably in love with his wife. Possibly his 
love, strong as it was, was of its nature ephemeral, too 
fitful and violent to last ; but it was none the less cer- 
tain that Wallace loved Laline, after his own fashion, 
with a jealous and exacting passion, stronger than he 
had ever yet felt for any woman. 

Yet his love was very far from bringing happiness 
along with it. So far in life he had accustomed himself 
to despising the entire female sex, and the conviction 
that this woman, who was by law his property, was im- 
measurably above him, that only her religion and duty 
constrained her to tolerate him, that he might kill her 
pride and break her spirit, but that never could he hope 
to win the love she had so freely lavished upon his 
cousin, irritated him at times almost to madness. 

He was her husband ; she would follow him through 
the world, link her life to his broken fortunes, bear with 
his furious temper, his drunkenness, and his brutality, 
be proudly silent under his ill-usage, and remain through- 
out her whole existence faithful to him in word and 
deed, and yet he knew already that of her mind and 
heart he would never be master, that she would be kind 
to him, pitiful, and patient, but that her love he might 
not hope to gain. 


298 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


Sometimes, after leaving Mrs/ Yandeleur’s little oak- 
panelled sitting-room, in the scented air and amid the 
weird accessories of which he felt strangely out of place, 
he would give way to a furious access of rage against 
his wife as he recalled her image, sitting there in her 
low chair by the fire facing Mrs. Yandeleur, and looking 
at him with those soft, searching dark eyes of hers. 
She was always kind to him ; she listened to him with 
a great effort to appear interested in the unfolding of 
his plans for their future j but it was very difficult to 
lie to her, and sometimes an impotent rage against her 
kept him silent, lest he should break into curses against 
her cold quiet purity and aloofness from such a man 
as he. 

His nerves were broken by the life he had led, and 
now and then he absolutely dreaded lest the mingled 
love and hate with which she inspired him might move 
him to strike the light out of that beautiful pale face of 
hers. Through all her gentleness he fancied he could 
read her dislike of him and the strain his presence in- 
flicted upon her, and the thought stung his pride and 
self-love intolerably. 

Thus the time had passed with him until the very day 
fixed for their departure from London. It had been 
arranged that Laline should call in a cab at her hus- 
band’s rooms, and that they should proceed together to 
the station to catch the train for Liverpool. The ar- 
rangement was Laline’s. She especially wished that 
Wallace should not come for her to St. Mary’s Crescent. 
Between him and Clare there appeared always to be a 
kind of secret understanding, which puzzled and dis- 
tressed Laline, who had no suspicion of the part Clare 
had played in the recent events of her life. IJnpunctu- 
ality was one of Wallace’s distinguishing characteristics, 
and, to guard against this, it had been arranged that 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


299 


Mrs. Wallace Armstrong should call with her luggage on 
the cab at nine o’clock, as the train for Liverpool left 
Euston Station at ten. 

On the stroke of nine, therefore, a four-wheeled cab 
drew up at the door of Wallace’s rooms in the dreary 
side street off the Strand. The elderly landlady opened 
the door so promptly that it was plain she had been on 
the watch, and her manner to Laline was very different 
from what it had been towards Clare Cavan on the 
occasion of that young lady’s flying visit a fortnight 
before. 

“ Mr. Armstrong’s things are all packed, ma’am, ac- 
cording to his orders. But Mr. Armstrong is not in just 
now. I expect him every minute. He went out about 
ten this morning and hasn’t yet returned. But he ex- 
pects you, ma’am. Please step inside and let me give 
you a cup of tea.” 

As she spoke she opened the door of a sitting-room on 
the ground-floor, a room furnished in the depressing 
fashion peculiar to London lodgings. Something in the 
untidy and neglected air of it, in the odour of stale 
spirits and tobacco, and the quantity of newspapers 
strewn around, took Laline’s thoughts back instantly to 
the old Boulogne life with her father. There was plenty 
of time yet, and her head throbbed with a dull incessant 
pain. She therefore accepted the landlady’s offer of 
tea and sat down in a shiny black horsehair armchair, 
with her eyes fixed on the clock, to wait for her hus- 
band. 

The minutes ticked by. Tea was brought in. Laline 
drank it and dismissed the sympathetic but inquisitive 
landlady, who opined that “ gentlemen do get detained 
like when they meet a friend in the Strand — especially 
gentlemen that are going abroad. It’s ‘ Good luck to 
you !’ and a glass here and a glass there, until many a 


300 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


gentleman doesn’t rightly know the time of day or 
whether he’s on his head or his heels.” 

Still the minutes ticked by. The half-hour struck, 
the quarter, and finally the hour. The train which was 
to take them on the first stage of their journey towards 
that new life in the West had left the station by this 
time, Laline knew. Motionless she sat, watching the 
hands of the clock, while the cab waited outside with 
her luggage, until the full pain and humiliation of her 
position suddenly burst upon her with overwhelming 
force. 

Wallace was spending the day drinking, and had 
probably forgotten all about the appointment. The land- 
lady outside, peeping curiously at her every now and 
then through the chink in the folding-doors leading to 
the adjoining room, knew it, and pitied her. She could 
not go back to Mrs. Yandeleur’s — she had burned her 
ships. By this time every one believed that she and 
her husband had left London. This was the beginning 
of the ordeal she must go through, and, coming after a 
long period of intense strain and suffering, it seemed 
more than Laline could bear. 

Suddenly slipping on her knees before the chair on 
which she had been sitting, she stretched up her arms 
in a despairing prayer to Heaven. 

“ Help me ! Help me ! I cannot bear it ! My heart 
will break !” 

She did not hear the folding-doors open ; she did not 
see the shambling figure standing in the aperture with 
haggard eyes fixed upon her. She never guessed that 
Wallace had come home after a day spent in wild excess, 
and that, hearing of her presence, he had crept first 
into the bedroom and endeavoured, by plunging his 
head in cold water, to make himself presentable to his 
wife. He had forgotten the time fixed for the train, but 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


301 


he retained an uneasy sense of a last chance lost. The 
cold water partly sobered him, but right through his dull 
blurred senses Laline’s heart-breaking cry pierced to his 
very soul. 

He had spoiled his own life, and no new one was pos- 
sible. He knew in his secret heart that he should go on 
in the old way again and drag her life down in the 
misery of his. She had come to him to save him, and 
already her heart was breaking. Lorin, too, who had 
been his friend through everything, was breaking his 
heart away from his home and his love. He turned 
back into the room and looked at himself in a strip of 
glass affixed to the wardrobe. Gray -haired, pallid, with 
shaking hands and bloodshot eyes, was he worth the 
sacrifice this girl was making for him ? 

Every nerve in his body thundered “ Ho 1” And, 
moved by the first unselfish impulse of his life, he crept 
out into the darkness and slippery rain of the thaw 
outside. 

“ ‘ Found drowned,’ that’s what they’ll call it. And 
she need never know.” 

So his horrid stumbling footsteps led him down to the 
embankment, and the turbid waters closed that night 
over one more wasted life. 

******* 

One year later Laline Armstrong, a widow but never 
a wife, was married very quietly to Lorin in the pres- 
ence of his uncle and Mrs. Yandeleur. Clare Cavan was 
not present. She had not indeed been invited, but was 
consoled about that time by an offer of marriage from 
an elderly and wealthy stockbroker, which she at once 
accepted. Humour has it that it has proved a miser- 
able union, and that Clare’s husband’s jealousy is be- 
yond parallel. But, at least, her toilettes are much 
admired. 


26 


302 


HER FAIRY PRINCE. 


As to Lorin and Laline, we may leave them with a 
quiet mind, sure that for them — 

“ Life will just hold out the proving both their powers, alone and 
blended ; 

And then, come next life quickly I This world’s use will have 
been ended,” 


THE END. 


Authors and Their Works . 


Captain Charles King, u.s.a. 


Under Fire. Illustrated. Cloth , $1.25. 

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EDITOR OP 

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Cloth, $1.25. 

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Paper, 50 cents. 

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50 cents. 

From the lowest soldier to the highest officer, from the servant to the 
master, there is not a character in any of Captain King’s novels that is 
not wholly in keeping with expressed sentiments. There is not a move- 
ment made on the field, not a break from the ranks, not an offence 
against the military code of discipline, and hardly a heart-beat that 
escapes his watchfulness,” — Boston Herald. 


J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA. 


Authors and Their Works. 


ANNE H. WHARTON. 


Through Colonial Doorways. 

With a Number of Colonial Illustrations from Drawings specially 
made for the Work. 

i2mo. Cloth, $1.25. 

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this little book tells us about the belles of the Philadelphia 
meschianza, who they were, how they dressed, and how they 
flirted with Major Andr^ and other officers in Sir William Howe’s 
wicked employ .” — Philadelphia Record. 

Colonial Days and Dames. 

With Numerous Illustrations. 

i2mo. Cloth, $1.25. 

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freshened them into bloom and perfume. Each slight paragraph 
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why such letters were written, with hints of love affairs, which 
lend a rose-colored veil to what were probably every-day matters 
in colonial families .” — Pittsburg Bulletin. 

The Colonial Library. 

Through Colonial Doorways and Colonial Days 
and Dames. 

Two volumes in a box. i2mo. Cloth, $2.50. 


J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 




JUST PUBLISHED. 


A New Novel 


By FLORENCE WARDEN, 

Author of “ The House on the Marsh,” “ My Child and I,” etc., 

A SPOILT GIRL. 

i2mo. Paper, 50 cents; Cloth, $1.00. 


“ Tt is rather a fascinating tale, which holds the interest of the 
reader.” — Brooklyn Eagle. 

“ Miss Warden’s novels are always interesting. Readers of 
‘House on the Marsh’ will welcome a new work from the pen of this 
charming author.”— National Tribune. 





“ ‘ A Spoilt Girl* is a kind of retelling of the old story of Ingo- 
mar , with the characters reversed. There is plenty of stirring adven- 
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one. ’ ’ — Philadelphia Evening Telegraph. 

“ ‘ A Spoilt Girl,’ by Florence Warden, has a charm which is 
quite irresistible. There is not a dull page in the book, the dialogues 
are vivacious and witty, and the chief character is capitally man- 
aged.” — Philadelphia Press. 

“ The story is somewhat different from others by this author, for 
there is no mystery about it, but it is decidedly novel and readable. 
Those who like Miss Warden’s stories, and the number is constantly 
increasing, will gladly add this to the books to be read at once.” 
—Boston Times. 


“ ‘ The House on the Marsh,’ by Florence Warden, published 
some two years or more ago, brought this author into favorable notice, 
and later stories of hers increased the favorable estimate of her works. 
Her latest story, ‘ A Spoilt Girl,’ is her best. The « Brancepeths’ are 
a new type, and their portrayal shows great originality. As a love- 
story the book is delightful.”— Boston Daily Advertiser. 


Por sale by all Booksellers, or will be sent, post-paid, upon receipt 
of price by the Publishers, 


J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, 

715 and 717 Market Street, Philadelphia. 




\ Le \iv \/> \>> \>V Uv \>V Ov ovUj 773 


SOME FICTION ANNOUNCEMENTS 


Ready this Autumn. 

A Colonial Wooing. y' 1 *' 

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Much interest has been excited in this new venture of Dr. Abbott’s, by the fact 
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